A Gift from the Past
by Reira.D
Summary: COMPLETE When we lose one friend, we gain one also. Abby just doesn’t realize it yet, just as Hoagie did not realize, but like Hoagie did, she’ll realize soon too. Focus: 2x5 . 3x4 included. Fun contest also!
1. 25th Student

**Plot Summary**: When we lose a friend, though sometimes we do not realize it, we gain one friend also, and the existing friendships become stronger as well. Hoagie Gilligan, Kuki Sanban, Abigail Lincoln, and Wally Beetles had lost a friend long ago, but their friendships where strengthened, even more so, when the one new friend came around. [2x5, 3x4

**Authors Note**: Thank you for clicking on the link to read my little fanfic! I very much appreciate it. Now, before you get started (and those select few who choose not to read these author's notes will regret not reading it, but you won't you good person!), I would like to let you in on a contest that I am holding: Whoever can name the most parodies/ allusions(not including Kids Next Door – hush you!) in my writing(When the story is completed) will win a free art commission from me (For DeviantArt link, see profile page)! Sounds like fun – maybe. If you're not really into that sort of thing, then that's okay too. -

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door (But it goes without saying that we all wish that we could, ey? Wink wink – nudge nudge) I don't own any of the parody/allusion things either. -

Have at it!!!

-oOo-

**Chapter 1: 25th Student**

High school: It's inevitable, and for four young people in their homeroom class, the start of their new semester in it high school can be downright boring. Little did they realize, that morning in homeroom would be one of the most life changing, though their lives had already changed dramatically when their fifth friend went on to something far greater than their world.

"It'll be an easy day in homeroom today! I really didn't have anything planed, so you guys can just sit around and talk amongst yourselves," spoke Mrs. Juliet, the homeroom teacher of 24 students in their junior year of high school, "As long as I can still hear Mr. Marley over your chit-chatting, you can do pretty much whatever: talk, work on class stuff, whatever." With that she turned up the volume speakers that were hooked up to her mp3 player, and the class began move around to talk with their classmates.

Off to the side of the classroom, while leaving a lone desk in the very corner, sat four very diverse people. Though diverse they chatted like best friends, and that was what they were. There was so much commotion going on that the four of them, nor the rest of the class, noticed that a strange young girl had walked in through the door.

She walked to Mrs. Juliet's desk. She had eyes that were the most stunning shade of green. Her dark black hair glistened dark blue from the light. It was in a bun, but a portion of it hung down like a pony tail from beneath that bun. She also had bangs that were moved over her ear as to not cover her face. She wore a black t-shirt, over it, one of those short jacket things that cover your chest and arms just fine but don't quite cover your belly or lower back. It was a dark brown. She wore jeans and black skateboarding shoes. To finish the job, she carried with her a black bag that had strip of piano keys on one side of it.

Mrs. Juliet turned down the music at the sight of this young girl. Slowly, but surely, more and more students began to notice this unfamiliar person. She greeted the teacher and handed her a piece of paper. The two of them proceeded to the front of the class, and everyone became very silent. As the young girl wrote her name on the white board, Mrs. Juliet started, "It seems that we have a new student, class. I'll let her introduce herself." The young miss turned around to face the class. Her name on the white board was written just over her head, almost labeling her with it.

"My name is Oberon Reira Desdeimona III. I'm - ," she started, but a thin boy with yellow tinted glasses , grey brown hair, and faded brown golfers hat stood from his desk all of a sudden.

"My name is Hoagie Pennywhistle Gilligan, Jr., and at least I'm a _boy_ with a _boy's_ name!" he exclaimed. Some of the other students chuckled; others just stared angrily, like the dark skinned girl with a red beret who sat next to him.

Mrs. Juliet, annoyed, took action, "Mr. Gilligan, that was very inappropriate. You will apologize to Miss Desdeimona this very-,"

"It's very nice to meet you, Hoagie Pennywhistle Gilligan, Jr.," the young girl said. It was apparent that she had been taken aback by his sudden comment, but she just smiled. "I get that a lot. It's okay though. My dad named me that before I was born. He was quite shocked too when I finally had been born, but everyone can call me Reira if they like." Reira's patience was a bit shocking to the class. She continued, "When I was small, I was forced to move out of this town because of my dad's work, but now I've returned, and I will be starting with all of you for this new semester. I never got a chance to make new friends back then, but I really hope that I can be friends with all of you."

"I hope the same for you, Reira." Mrs. Juliet added, "Reira doesn't have a class schedule yet and won't have one until next week when the semester officially begins, so if one of you could volunteer to show her around school..." Reira looked around the classroom with a nervous smile. "Ah, Miss Lincoln, would you please?"

"That's not a problem Mrs. J," she said happily. The class was filled with the groans of the many disappointed, and most likely single, junior class boys who had raised their volunteering hands. Reira let out a sigh of relief.

"Wonderful, now, I'll just let you all continue with whatever it was you were up to!" Mrs. Juliet sat back at her seat at the front of the class, and turned up the volume of the speakers. Abigail looked to Reira and waved her hand, directing her to sit with her four other friends. Reira took her seat in the once empty desk.

"This seat doesn't belong to me," she whispered, not thinking that anyone would hear her.

"What was that?" Abigail asked her.

"It was nothing." Reira said quickly, and then smiled at her.

"Hm," Abigail looked puzzled, "Oh well then. The name's Abigail Lincoln, but you just go on and call me Abby." She told Reira, giving back the same friendly smile. Reira nodded in understanding. "You've already met this doofus over here," Abby said coldly while pointing over her shoulder to Hoagie.

"Hey!" he retorted. He let out a slight cough, "Sorry for what I said earlier, by the way. Just call me Hoagie."

"It's alright, it's alright," Reira reassured him.

"Abby, and Hoags here, have been friends since we was little kids," Abby commented. They laughed, and the other two friends laughed with them, though she was really happy to be making friends, Reira's head began to hurt, and she didn't know why. Trying to keep her smile while her head was beginning to throb more painfully, she closed her eyes for only a moment, but what she saw surprised her.

She was seeing through the eyes of a little person bouncing a red rubber ball. She could hear a voice but it was phasing in and out of her head. "It was – met a – he was really happy – cute little girl –." Reira opened her eyes. A young and beautiful Asian girl was tugging gently on her arm, as though seeking attention, and as quickly as the pain came, it went.

"I'm Kuki! Kuki Sanban," the girl started, "I really like your hair. You're very pretty. I hope we will be great friends. I hope we have classes together too!" she exclaimed. She was starting to speak faster and faster. "Do you like Rainbow Monkeys? I LOVE Rainbow Monkeys!!! I have since I was a kid. Ooh, we should go shopping together!!! Wally never wants to go shopping with me! We should get you a new jacket! These short jackets are cute, but I don't really understand them! Let's go and –,"

"Slow down, would ya?" the blonde boy next to her pleaded. Reira was shocked at his accent, but she found it interesting. "The name's Wally Beetles, and don't worry, I'm not into Rainbow Monkeys. I don't talk like an auctioneer either!" he said. His words obviously directed to Kuki, but she ignored it completely.

"It's really nice to meet you all," Reira told them, "I hope we can be great friends." For the remainder of the class, they all talked. They exchanged stories of early childhood, classes, teachers, and home life, while Reira listened patiently and occasionally made an input into the conversation. Everyone in the class room noticed that the bell for second period passing would go off soon. The room went into a dull roar of conversation as its students waited for the bell.

When the bell rang, all of the students got up. They quickly packed up and rummaged through their backpacks, and the talking started to leave the classroom, out the door specifically. Reira and her new friends would be the last ones out. They took their time getting their things together.

As the five of them were leaving Abby began, "Okay, Reira, you can go with any of us to our next class. I think you can tag along with two of us today, then the other two tomorrow. I guess you should go with me for the next two classes, then the last three classes you can go with whoever you want to –," Reira was just barely paying attention to what Abby was saying. Hoagie, Kuki, and Wally were chatting to her at the same time, leaving Reira confused.

All of them were almost out the door when Reira asked Wally, "So, how long have you and Kuki been dating?" Everyone was silent. Even parts of the hallway were silent. "Huh?" Reira was slightly confused. Wally looked at Reira, and then looked at Kuki who was looking the other way, trying her best to pretend that she heard nothing, and then back at Reira again. He said nothing. It was a bit too intense for any of them to stand.

"Who told you…?" Wally began softly, but was Reira and sure that his words would be working their way up to a loud yelling. She smiled and laughed nervously. After what seemed like an eternity, she looked over to Abby.

"Okay! Uh, um… Come on Rei! You're going with me to my next class. See ya'll later!!!" Abby said in a rush. She grabbed Reira's arm and dragged her around the next corner as quickly as she could. The hallway flooded with talking again.

Wally glared at Hoagie angrily. "What? Don't look at me! I didn't' say anything," Hoagie told to him. Wally turned around and walked off in a huff. Kuki followed after him. They shared the next class.

-oOo-

At lunch, Hoagie and Abby brought Reira to their hangout: A grassy area with a wooden bench and a large oak tree just off to the side of the performing arts center. Reira sat underneath the tree eating her sandwich happily with her new friends.

"What was that you said earlier today?" Abby asked Reira. Hoagie looked at them without a clue. Abby had heard what Reira had said, and Reira knew it, and she tried thinking of the best way to explain.

"When I was little, before I moved away," Reira said, "I did make one friend. All day in your classes I couldn't pay attention that much because I was looking for that same friend."

"Abby should be able to help you there," Hoagie said cheerfully, "She knows practically everybody in school!"

"Yeah," Abby agreed, "You just tell me the name, and we can go get them for you!"

Reira sat there for a few moments, trying to remember the name that went with that friendly face. "Hmm, the name is hard for me to remember…"

"Just do your best, Rei," Abby told her, "Just tell us what you remember!"

"Well, I remember, he was kind of paranoid. There was an accent in his voice!" Hoagie and Abby looked at each other then back to Reira who was trying her best and Hoagie and Abby could tell by the way she would look down and close her eyes for moments in time. "He was British I think, and he wore reading glasses."

_What are the chances…_Hoagie was thinking. _It's got to be a coincidence._

_There's no way…_Abby said to herself.

"He was also bald!" Reira laughed quietly, "How could I almost forget something like that." Hoagie and Abby looked at each other again. They had to make up a story, and they had to make one up quick! "I just wanted to tell him, that I was sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Hoagie questioned.

"That I'm sorry I had to leave so quickly." Reira told him.

"Uh, Rei," Abby started. Hoagie would just have to go along with it, and hopefully he wouldn't go and screw it up, "You're talking about Nigel, right?"

"You know who I'm talking about?"Reira looked at Abby with hope in her eyes.

"Uh, yeah…"Abby said, looking off in another direction.

"He is a pretty unforgettable guy," Hoagie added. He looked at Abby, trying to find any hint of what to say.

"He moved away from here a long time ago, Reira." Abby said to her sadly. She and Hoagie could see the shimmer of hope in Reira's eyes disappear.

"I see, well," Reira was looking for words, "I should've figured something like that was going to happen."

Wally and Kuki came only a few moments later. Wally stomped over to the tree, picked Reira up by the collar of her shirt. There she was – again with her nervous laugh. Wally shook her a bit. "Alright, spill it! Who told you that me and Kuki were dating?! That's supposed to be a secret between the four of us!" he yelled while glaring at the others. His eyes shot back at Reira.

"Wally, leave her alone!!!" Kuki cried out to him. She grabbed his arm, trying hopelessly to loosen his hold on Reira.

"Come on!!! Who told you!!?" Wally yelled again, this time shaking Reira a bit more violently. Abby and Hoagie began to protest.

"Just leave her alone!"

"None of us said anything!"

"I just guessed," Reira calmly, but loud enough for Wally to hear over his violent shaking.

"You guessed?" the other four said together. Wally stopped shaking her and put her down. Reira brushed herself off, went back to her spot underneath the tree, sat down, and took another bit of bite of her sandwich.

"Lunch beneath an oak tree like this is really nice," she told them. Still in disbelief, Wally walked up to her. Kuki, Hoagie and Abby followed close behind him, just in case he tried anything again.

"What do you mean you guessed?" he asked.

"I guessed. You didn't say anything – You didn't try to protest in the hallway earlier," Reira took another bite of her sandwich, "You could have always said that that wasn't true. I might not have believed you, though."

There was a thud, and Wally was sitting on the ground in front of her. "Yeah, we've been going out for a while now," he told her. The others could see that it was safe to say that Wally wasn't going to be attacking anymore people today, so they sat down with them. "Sorry that I shook you up a bit."

"It's fine," she assured him.

Reira attended the last three classes of the day with Wally. They talked a lot about Kuki and their relationship. Talking to Reira really helped him, and strengthened their friendship.

After school, they met each other in the front of the campus. Abby and Hoagie said their goodbyes to the other three. Reira watched the two of them as they were leaving. It was in her recent understanding that every once in a while, Hoagie and Abby would exchange giving each other a ride, whenever the other had a car available. Apparently, their homes were close by one another's.

Reira looked over to Kuki and Wally. Between the three of them, none of them had a driver's license, so they waited for their separate rides together. "Wally, Kuki. Before I go blabbing out in a hallway again, I have to ask," Reira started. The two looked over to her, wondering what she wanted to talk about. "Hoagie and Abby…surely they are dating as well, right?"

"No, silly!" Kuki laughed, "But, you think they should be going out together don't you!?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, the two of them seem to get along well, and they do look good next to each other," Reira said.

"Yeah," Wally started, "Hoags has had this big crush on her ever since we were kids. Well, I take that back. He had a crush on her older sister first."

"Then he realized that it was Abby that he liked so much, not the older sister. Isn't that cute!?" Kuki said. Reira smiled and nodded. She was able to learn in a day that Kuki had established many different definitions of the word "cute", but this definition was one that Reira was able to agree on.

"But the bloat doesn't even bother saying anything!" Wally exclaimed, "I mean, even I was able to tell Kuki how I felt, only after he talked me into it! 'It's not that hard Wally! Tell her how you feel Wally!' The guy can't even do it himself!"

"I'm sure that Abby knows this too, right?" Reira asked.

"Maybe," Kuki replied.

"If she does, then she doesn't care," Wally said to Reira, "A lot of guys want to date Abs, and I'm pretty sure that she's had her eye out for a few of them too, but Hoagie Gilligan is not on that list. It's kind of apparent that geeky guys are not her type. Poor bloat." Reira looked sadly to the ground.

"What's the matter?" Kuki asked her.

"That seems really sad, if you ask me," Reira replied, "I think that they would be happy together. Oh!" A black car came up to the curb. "That's my ride." Reira got up and grabbed her bag. "I'll see you guys tomorrow. The same place right? Next to the performing arts center?" she asked while walking to her car. Wally and Kuki nodded then waved to her goodbye. She waved to them in return as she sat inside the car.

"Classmates?" the driver asked.

"Yes, classmates. My new friends."

"New friends? How exciting! I'm very glad for you, Miss."

Reira looked out the window while the car was pulling out of the school. Her mind was on the conversation that she, Wally and Kuki just had. _Maybe, Abby just doesn't realize it yet, just as Hoagie did not realize, but like Hoagie did, she'll realize soon too._

-oOo-

**Ch1 Notes: **This first chapter was really fun to write. This is my very first fanficiton, guys, and I hope you like it and will keep up with the reading, because it does get better and better each chapter. Keep up with the parodies/allusions, too! Whoever has found the most by the end of the story, gets that free art commission from me. Now, the only way this will work is if you post your answers when the story is completely finished, otherwise it would be too easy to cheat, and we don't want any of that. Please show your support by reviewing, though. Keep in mind, I will only tolerate positive words. I'm not a writer, I know that already. **- Next chapter!**


	2. Unexpected Visitors

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door, or any of its characters, but in case you were wondering, I _do _own Reira…and Gordon, in a sense.

**Chapter 2: Unexpected Visitors**

Time passed, and Reira was completely settled into her classes. Thankfully, she had a class with at least one of her now very close friends. She had History with Kuki, Physics with Hoagie and Abby, English with Wally and Kuki, Pre-Calculus with Hoagie, Intro to film with Abby, and Band with Wally. The days flew by, but Reira was very happy about having friends that she cherished every day she spent with them.

"Now that I've explained as much as I can, are there any questions about your Physics projects?" Mr. Renolds, Hoagie, Abby and Reira's Physics teacher and probably the smartest person on the campus at any given moment in time, asked. "No? Alright. You're free to choose partners then. I'll let you use the rest of the class period to plan for your project accordingly. Oh, let's keep things at a ratio of three people to one group, please." The class moved about, settling on groups for their upcoming projects. It was no question that the three close friends would group together.

"This will be fun, right guys?!" Hoagie said in excitement. Science was his best subject. It seemed that he didn't even have to pay attention in class and he would still get A's on tests.

"Right," Abby said unenthusiastically, "Abby's just going to leave all the work to you then, Hoagie." They laughed.

"I'll try my best," Reira said, "I wonder what we should do for our project though." Reira looked around the class at the little groups that had formed. All of which seemed to have no clue as to what to do for their projects. "It would seem that no one has a clue as to what to do for their projects." The three of them sat in their places in thought, like the other groups did.

"Did you hear about prom? Oh my god! It's going to be so much fun!" Reira looked up slightly to see Hoagie and Abby eyes closed and thinking. Tilting her head a little she saw a girl talking to her group partners. Reira could tell that they were popular, or at least liked by the student body by the way they chatted to each other proudly. "I'm so excited about prom, I just can't wait! The head of ASB is letting student bands try out for it!"

"Try out for what?" one of the girl's partners asked.

"Try out for prom band! The head of ASB is going to choose the best band to perform throughout prom night!" Reira closed her eyes and smiled. _That does sound like a lot of fun. _When she opened her eyes she noticed that Hoagie had his head tilted and his eyes opened. He too had been listening in on the conversation.

-oOo-

It has been two weeks since the Physics project was assigned. The three would meet once in a while, either at Abby's or at Hoagie's to work on their project, but it wasn't worth denying that they were very far behind. Word about prom bands was traveling around the school, and people were getting really excited that in a couple of weeks, try outs would be held and soon, they would know the students who would perform and, hopefully, make their prom unforgettable.

"So, Reira's not here?" Hoagie asked. They main four were in homeroom for that morning, heck, they were in there at least two to three times a month.

"No," Kuki said sadly, "There was no one to help me with the History homework today."

"She called me this morning saying that she was sick," Abby told her friends.

"Hey, don't you guys have that big Physics project?" Wally asked.

"Yeah, we do," Hoagie replied, though reluctantly. He and Abby looked to each other. It wasn't really the thing that they wanted to talk about at the moment. It was just too stressful to worry about it.

-oOo-

Hoagie and Abby where heading over to Abby's mom's car. "Maybe we should go over to Reira's house to see how she's feeling. We might even be able to work on our project too," Hoagie proposed.

"You are a fool," Abby told him, "We can't just barge into a person's house uninvited." Hoagie frowned. "Besides, we don't even have her address! We don't know where she lives!" The two of them got into the car. Hoagie put is messenger bag on his lap and pulled out a slip of paper.

"I have her address right here," he told her. Abby looked rather surprised.

"When did you get that?" she asked him suspiciously.

"She gave it to me a few days after the project was assigned." Abby looked at him, unsatisfied.

"She seemed kind of hesitant to give it to me," Hoagie added, "But she said that if we really needed to, we were welcome to work on the project at her house." Hoagie got a hold of the GPS system that Abby's mother had recently bought and input Reira's address.

"If I had known better back then, I wouldn't have told you my address either." Abby said with a giggle.

"Haha, very funny," Hoagie replied sarcastically. Abby turned the keys and started up the engine. "We can at least say 'hi' to her." He replaced the GPS in its holster. Abby looked at it. _It's not that far away…_

"Oh, alright," Abby sighed, "But only to say 'hi'." With that she pulled out of the school student parking lot and was on the road leading to Reira's house. Fifteen minutes passed by before they were on the right street. It was very woodsy, and had very large estates. "Wow, I didn't know that there were houses like this around here."

Hoagie looked down at the GPS. "We are almost there. It should be the next gate."

The second that Hoagie finished his sentence the GPS voice sounded saying, "You have arrived at your destination." Hoagie and Abby looked out the car's side window. They stared directly at an aged black gate. It was large with a very eloquent design. Hoagie got out of the car and tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge.

Back in the car, he looked at Abby, "It's no good."

"Maybe we should call her to open the gate – whoa!" Hoagie turned around to see what Abby was seeing. The gate suddenly began to open.

"Should we go in?" Hoagie was thinking out loud.

"Abby thinks that it's safe to say that it wants us too," she replied. She drove the car through the gate and proceeded through a beaten cobble stone path that was thickly surrounded by bulky, ancient trees. The path began to open up, and soon the two of them were looking at an immense estate. Abby continued to drive the car on the cobble stone path which eventually lead into a circular driveway. She parked her car at the front of the house where two great, mahogany doors greeted them. The two of them stayed in the car for a while wondering about what they were doing.

When Abby put some thought into it, neither she nor Hoagie or Kuki and Wally have ever been to Reira's house before. "Looks kind of creepy," Abby said quietly.

"Maybe we should just turn around," Hoagie said nervously.

"Nah-uh," Abby yelled at him as she took off her beret and hit him over the head with it, "Abby took her time to drive all the way out here, and you better believe that she is going to give her friend a visit!"

-oOo-

"How are you feeling, Miss?" an old, tired voice asked.

"Better now," Reira replied, "Thank you for asking." The old man walked to her bedroom window to enjoy the lovely view that she had of the outside.

"Master, Reira?"

"Yes, Gordon?" She replied to the old butler. She didn't like calling him a butler. He was more like her friend, though he did help her around the house a lot. Reira has known Gordon for as long as she could remember. Though his hair was going from grey to white, he still stood very tall, and still wore the same black suit and bow tie and his black eye patch to cover his blind eye. Reira was typing up the final draft of her English essay in her room.

"Were you expecting visitors?" he asked.

"No I wasn't," Reira replied. She wasn't really thinking about it thoroughly, as she was really immersed in her writing.

"It's seems that you have some visitors."

"Visitors, you say?" She replied, again not really thinking about it.

"Two of them. Both very young. One, male, Caucasian, body type: tall, athletic. The other, female, African American, ideal physique." Gordon examined. Abby and Hoagie were out of the car already looking at the large doors. Gordon continued to watch them. Hoagie tried to getting back into the car, but Abby dragged him out by the collar and threw him to the ground. "It's quite clear who the dominant one is," he said quietly.

"Oh!" Reira said, realizing who he was talking about. "What are they doing here?! I haven't started dinner, my room is a mess, and I'm a mess!!!" She got up and started to clear her room as best as she could.

"Should I dispose of them, Master Reira?" Gordon asked.

Reira swirled around to face him, and then gave a yelp when she saw that the old man had a riffle in his hand. "No, Gordon, don't!" she ran over to him and quickly took the riffle away. "Gordon, those two are my friends! You don't shot my friends!"

"Shall I prepare dinner for your guests then, Master Reira?" he asked her as if nothing had happened. Reira let out sigh.

"Yes that would be really nice. Thank you, Gordon. Can you put this away?" She said, holding up the riffle.

"Of course, Master Reira." Gordon left the room quietly.

-oOo-

The two wooden doors opened suddenly just as Abby was about to knock. "Welcome to the Desdeimona Estate," Gordon greeted them. "Masters Gilligan and Lincoln, please come in," he gestured. Shocked, Hoagie and Abby walked inside the house. It was awfully empty, there was hardly any furniture, and it was also very dark. Still, it was lit enough to see a vast staircase in front of them and a pajama clad Reira making her way down. "Dinner will be ready shortly, Master Reira." He said to her.

"Thank you, Gordon." Reira replied, "I can take it from here." Gordon bowed his head her. Then before leaving the room, did the same to Hoagie and Abby. "Hi guys! I wasn't expecting you."

"We know," Abby started, "Abby and Hoagie had a talk about that before getting here."

"It's alright. I'm kind of a mess though." Reira told them referring to her pajamas and untidy hair.

"Oh, we don't mind," Hoagie told her. She smiled and showed them upstairs to her room. Here, there was a much more apparent difference when compared to the rest of the house. There was furniture in Reira's big and cluttered room, to start. A desk sat of to one side that had a lamp, and laptop, and papers scattered about it. Hanging over it was two cork boards that were covered with notes and spread sheets. On one side of the desk sat a small white board with a cocktail of equations, homework and more notes. On the other side of her desk was a completely electric drum set. In another corner of the room was a grand piano. In fact, there were instruments everywhere: a bassoon, a flute, a saxophone, an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar, a double bass, a viola and a cello, all of them out of their respectable cases. A book case holding books ranging from ridiculously large to very small, was also holding little knick-knacks and ornaments, and more loose papers. It sat next to her small unmade bed.

Abby and Hoagie looked around in complete disbelief. "I know, it's really messy, but if I knew that you guys were coming over, I might have made an effort to clean it." Reira tried to explain.

"Actually, I think that it's a bit cleaner than my room. In my room, you can't even see the floor!" Hoagie said with a laugh. He was actually trying not to make her feel so bad, for in reality he kept his room pretty tidy.

"Yeah, don't worry yourself. Abby's seen much worse back in her days." Together they cleared a space on the floor where they would be able to work on their project.

"That's much better." Hoagie said looking at the open space they had created.

"Master Reira," Gordon said just outside the doorway. Hoagie and Abby turned. They were surprised to see him there all of a sudden without even hearing him walking through the hallway, "Your dinner is ready."

"Thank you, Gordon." All four of them went downstairs, through another empty hallway and into the kitchen. There sat a square table with a fried chicken, mashed potato and gravy meal placed on top of it. Hoagie, Abby, and Reira took their seats and began serving themselves. "You're not eating, Gordon?" Reira asked.

"No, Master Reira, I will be eating later in the evening, before I take my slumber." He replied.

"Whatever you say, Gordon." At that, Gordon left the three to their dinner. They sat and ate in silence for quite some time, until Hoagie thought it was about time to break the silence.

"So, Reira, don't you get kind of lonely living here in this big empty house?" It was then did he realize that Reira never did mention her family very often, even if it has been months since they first met. He had wondered about this on occasion but felt it better if he didn't ask. Abby gave him a short glare. _Maybe now wasn't the best timing…_

"It's not so bad," She said, rather melancholy, "I have Gordon to keep me company."

"So, where's your mom right now?" Hoagie asked. Abby was glaring at him again.

"Oh, she's on tour right now with her orchestra. She's a conductor." Reira replied.

"That explains all those instruments in your room," Abby mentioned in a happier tone.

"It's just a hobby. I like to play them, and repair them." Reira took a bite out of her chicken.

"And your dad – ow!" Abby hit Hoagie with her beret. They looked over to Reira, who was looking down at her meal; her bangs were covering her face.

"He's on a business trip," She told them, looking up all of a sudden. Abby and Hoagie watched as Reira had forced a smile. They stayed silent for the rest of her meal.

-oOo-

**Ch2 Notes: **It will keep getting better, I promise. Keep your eyes out for all them parodies/allusions!


	3. The Pitch!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door, but man! How awesome would that be!? I don't own any of the parody/allusion things either.

**Chapter 3: The Pitch!**

It was almost nine o'clock. The three of them had been working for the past five hours, but it was worth it. They made a great deal of progress on their project. Abby had to leave at around eight o'clock; her mom needed her to pick up stuff at the local grocery store and come home. Hoagie gladly volunteered to stay and get one more part of the research portion done.

"Maybe, we should take a break," Reira sneezed. She could feel her cold coming back.

"Yeah we should," Hoagie agreed, "I'm done with this portion. I think that we should call it a night." Reira sat up against her bed and watched as Hoagie put some of his research into his messenger bag. Suddenly, he walked over to the acoustic guitar, picked it up and started to play it. This struck Reira as odd, as she had never known that Hoagie played any instrument at all.

Too tired to say something serious, Reira said to Hoagie jokingly, "You know you should get a group together and try out for that spot at prom."

"I was thinking about it," Hoagie said. Reira was taken back at his reply, "I didn't think that I'd be able to do it though, I was going to talk to you about it earlier, but other things have been on my mind." Reira only sat there, listening to him talk while he played. "Wally told me that you played a lot of instruments and that you were a fast learner. I would've had you play the drums. Wally and I would have played electric, and my brother would be on base guitar." He giggled tiredly, "We would rock so hard."

"It would be spectacular, spectacular…" Reira added. The two of them laughed.

Then, Hoagie's mobile began to ring. "Hello?" Hoagie answered, "Oh, yeah, I'm at a friend's house. We've just about wrapped up part of a project," a pause, "Yeah; I'll be heading home in a bit. Okay? Okay, bye."

"Would you like a ride home, Hoagie?" Reira offered.

"It beats walking home," Hoagie thought out loud, "Sure! Thanks"

-oOo-

The two of them sat in the back of Gordon's car awkwardly. Reira had wrapped herself in a thick blanket. She looked over to Hoagie, who was staring out the window looking at the sky. "Gordon, could you please?" Reira said. Hoagie looked at her wonderingly.

"Of course, Master Reira." A black tinted window rose, separating the front driver and passenger seat from the back seats.

"When do you plan on telling Abby how you feel, Hoagie?" Reira asked him.

Hoagie was left speechless. _How does she know? I didn't say anything. Maybe it's obvious. No, I've been careful. It had to be Wally, and Kuki, of course!_ "I don't know…" he replied. "Wally and Kuki told you didn't they?"

"They did," said Reira (_I knew it! _Hoagie thought.), "but only after I asked them to confirm my suspicion. I'm sure I would have figured it out on my own eventually." The two of them sat there in their thoughts.

"It's just that I know that she just isn't into guys like me. It's kind of depressing. I don't like thinking about it. What's worse is that I know she likes someone else." Hoagie spoke quietly and with his face turned away from his concerned friend. "What can I do? Tell her that the guy she likes is a joke in a miserable attempt to get her to fall for me. That's not what friends do. No. I try to support her the best that I can, telling her that she'll be happy with him, all in due time, as angry and as sad as that makes me. My friends, and their feelings, come first."

"Then when will you ever get what you want?" Reira said happily. "You can at least try, so that you can at least say that you did. I'd like to take you up on your offer." He looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "The prom! Let's get a band together and get ready for tryouts. Then, when we get the gig, the final song we perform will be your confession to Abby!" Hoagie gave Reira a "that's never going to work" sort of look, but Reira ignored this and continued, "Or you can make you confession song earlier, the point is that you'll have at least tried!"

"We've got so much stuff going on in our lives already though," Hoagie hopelessly argued, "When would we find the time to write songs, or practice or do stuff like that?"

"We'll find the time," Reira said, becoming more and more enthusiastic, "I heard you play tonight. You've got something, and that something will make Abby realize that she loves you just like you realized that you loved her this whole time!"

"I don't know…"

"At least give yourself tonight to think about it," Reira asked of him. He nodded. Reira looked outside only to notice that the car wasn't moving, and that it was parked in a driveway. She knocked on the tinted window, which Gordon proceeded to lower. "Gordon," Reira began, "how long have we been parked?"

"About the last ten minutes, Master Reira." He replied.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I thought it would be rude to interrupt, Master Reira."

"Well, I better be getting out now," Hoagie said, and he did just that. Reira rolled down the window and called out to Hoagie.

"Promise that you'll think about it!" she shouted. Hoagie waved to goodbye. Reira and Gordon watched as he walked through his front door. She could only hope for the best.

They pulled out of Hoagie's driveway. "Master Reira?"

"Yes Gordon?" Reira looked out the window, half listening, being immersed in her own thoughts at the moment.

"Master Gilligan thinks highly of his friends, does he?" Gordon started.

_He was listening in the whole time? How? _"He does; all of my friends do."

"Then do you not believe that they only deserve, in return, that same respect and honesty? They talk so openly to you. You should be able to talk to them openly too."

"You were outside the kitchen door the whole time, weren't you, Gordon?" Reira said in a darker voice.

"Your friends would understand. From what I observed, they value your friendship. I'm sure that they would understand."

"No, Gordon, they wouldn't understand. Not now, not yet at least, but soon, I'll tell them. I'm not ready yet." Reira didn't want to talk about it anymore. She just wanted some sleep. The rest of the drive was completely silent up until Gordon parked the car in the estate's garage.

"The Gilligan boy…Reira?" Gordon spoke. It was a more serious matter. Reira knew this. It was only for very serious matters did Gordon ever address her as just "Reira", and though the subject might not be the greatest one, she cherished these moments with her old friend. "You noticed this before. I only needed to see him once to notice that –,"

"I did notice, Gordon," Reira interrupted, "You see why I am not ready to tell my friends yet?"

"I understand."

They walked into the house. He walked her to the grand staircase. Reira was almost halfway up the staircase when she turned around. Gordon was still standing at the bottom (Gordon's room was on the first floor). "Goodnight, Gordon." She said to him.

She said this so quietly that she was surprised to hear Gordon say, "Goodnight, Master Reira," in return.

-oOo-

**Ch3 Notes: **It's just getting started.


	4. Making the Band

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Codename: Kids Next Door, nor do I like being reminded of this depressing fact every chapter.

**Chapter 4: Making the Band**

It was two o'clock on a Saturday morning. A weary, middle aged woman holding a black briefcase and other loose papers walked through the front door of her very grand estate. She stammered, half asleep, to her kitchen, taking off her shoes and dropping all of her things to the ground in the process. She opened one of the cupboards, got a glass, filled it with water, sat at the kitchen table, and sighed an exhausted sigh.

_I can finally relax. _She took a sip of the water and dropped her head onto the table. Just as she was about to fall asleep, she heard a loud knocking. "Who in the world!!?" She yelled out loud. The woman got up, took a few deep breathes, and made her way over to the two grand mahogany doors. The knocking continued, and echoed all throughout the estate. "I'm coming, I'm coming," she said calmly and quietly. She opened one of the doors, reluctantly, opening it only about a foot wide and looked outside to see three young adolescent teenagers, who looked just as shocked to see her as she was to see them. "Can I help you gentlemen?" she said, monotone. She was not in the mood for any of this.

"Uh, hi," one of the young boys said, "I'm Hoagie Gilligan, this is my brother Tommy, and this is Wally Beetles." All of them where holding guitar cases and amplifiers. The middle aged woman looked at them, very confused.

"Were you called here to perform for some party that I don't know about?" she questioned them, squinting her eyes suspiciously.

"What?" Hoagie asked.

"Shall I dispose of them, Master Titania?" a voice asked from behind the woman. She opened the door wider as she turned around to speak to the butler who was holding a riffle in his hands. Hoagie saw this and let out a yelp.

"Gordon, what are your doing!?" the woman said. She was rather surprised at the sight.

"Oh, Master Gilligan! What a lovely surprise." Gordon said cheerfully.

"Hi, Gordon!" Hoagie waved to him from outside. Gordon returned the greeting with a polite nod. The woman turned to around to face Hoagie. "We're friends of Reira," he said to her, "Do you mind if we come in and see her?" There wasn't any need to say that that was a ridiculous question. All of them realized this.

The woman let out another exhausted sigh. "Of course you can," she said, under too much stress and fatigue to care, or even question them. She opened the door wider and gestured them to walk inside and out of the cold night. "I'm Reira's mom. Call me Mrs. Desdeimona." Like Reira, she possessed the same green eyes and dark black hair that glimmered hints of blue in the light, though, her hair was shorter, and she was taller than her daughter.

"Thanks, Mrs. Desdeimona," all of them said as they walked into the house.

"We'll try not to make too much noise," Hoagie added with a laugh. Titania watched the boys ascend the staircase and out of her sight.

She turned to Gordon, who still had the riffle in his hands. "Gordon, will please put that away?"

"Certainly, Ma'am, certainly," he obeyed, "How was your travel, Master Titania?"

"It was long and exhausting," she started. She leaned against the two wooden doors.

"Oh?" Gordon replied. Titania walked over to him, helping him pick up all of her things off of the ground.

"Yes, but it was fun too," she added.

"I'm very pleased to hear that, Ma'am."

"Gordon," Titania began, "That boy, Hoagie Gilligan…is –"

"Yes, Ma'am. He is."

-oOo-

Reira opened the door of her bedroom as wide as inch to see the smiling faces of Hoagie, Wally, and Hoagie's brother Tommy. "Morning!" Hoagie said with great enthusiasm. Reira closed her door in his face, and went back to her bed. "Reira!" Hoagie opened the door and turned on the light. A groan came from underneath the covers of Reira's bed. Her room was just as they had left it only hours before. The three of them set their things down while Hoagie walked up to her bed where Reira was hiding and kicked it. "Come on! I gave it some thought like you wanted, and now I want to do it. _We_ want to do it! What do you say?"

"I say," a voice said from under the thick blankets, "that I said to give it the night to think about it, and I meant the whole night, Hoagie!"

"It's morning now!" he retaliated.

"It's 2:15 in the morning!!!" She screamed. The covers came flying off of her head.

"As soon as we heard, we wanted to get started right away!" Wally said. Tommy gave a nod.

"I can't believe Gordon let you in," Reira asked with a yawn and a sneeze. Her cold was coming back.

"Not Gordon," Hoagie said. Reira looked at him puzzled.

"It was your mom," Tommy explained.

"She was pretty cool about it," Wally added, "But at first she thought you were having a secret party or something like that."

"That's right," Reira said with another yawn, "She said she was going to be home early this morning. She probably just got home a little while ago."

"Please, Reira!" Hoagie begged. "I really want to do this. This is the only chance for me to tell Abby how I feel!" Tommy let out an "Oooo" noise. "Shut up, Tommy!" Hoagie yelled. "Come on, Reira, will you help us? We could really use it."

Reira shut her eyes, really thinking about it. A few moments passed. If Hoagie hadn't said her name again, she was sure that she would have fallen asleep. "Yeah," she replied, "I'll do it." The boys exchanged "yes's" and high-fives. "But," Reira started again, "We have to set some ground rules." The others quieted down, sat on the floor in front of her bed, and listened to her intently. "If this is going to work out for Hoagie, then we need to keep what we are doing as much of a secret as possible."

"That's no problem for me," Tommy said. He was in his last year of middle school. None of his friends would have really cared.

"I can't keep a secret from Kuki," Wally said.

"You're going to have to tell her as little as possible," Reira told him, "You can tell her that we are going to try out, or at least you and some other friends are. If we don't make the cut, then we don't make the cut, but if we do make it, you still have to tell her that we didn't."

"Gotcha," Wally agreed. None of them wanted to lie to their friends, but Reira saw it as the only way to make this plan of theirs work. She had to only hope that they would understand.

"We should get started," Reira suggested. She got out of bed, combed and tied her hair back, and then dusted off her completely electric drum set. The boys got up too and walked over to their guitar cases.

"Let me know if you need any help," Reira's mom said. The others looked up. She was standing outside the door the entire time, and behind her was Gordon. "We've got some extra rooms if you guys would rather sleep the rest of the morning." She suggested.

"No," Reira said, fully awake, "We want to get started as soon as possible." Reira's mom let out a sigh, but it was not a tired one, but a sigh of defeat. She gave a quick smile to her daughter then left with Gordon.

-oOo-

Some time passed by. Reira, Hoagie, and Abby began to meet more and more often to work on their Physics project. If Hoagie or Reira weren't working on their project, the rest of the time they would be practicing with Wally and Tommy. Soon, they were completely finished. Now that they were finally able to set the project aside, they dedicated the rest of their time on the band. The tryouts would be held the weekend before prom.

-oOo-

The Saturday of the tryouts came and went.

"Hi Kuki!" Wally said to his girlfriend at her doorstep, "Sorry I was a little bit late. I hope I didn't make you wait too long. Now come on. Let's go out on that date like I promised." Wally took her by the arm and walked her to his car. (He got his license recently, but ignored the law saying that he wasn't allowed to drive any other passenger for a certain waiting period.)

Once the two were settled inside the car, Kuki spoke. "Hey, weren't the band tryouts earlier today?"

A wide smile formed on Wally's face, "Yeah, they were." He remembered the rule that Reira had made. "We didn't make it."

"Aw, that's too bad, Wally," she said patting his shoulder, "but you look awfully happy."

"Well," he started, "You win some, you lose some. Can't do anything about it, so it's no use being miserable, right?" He kissed Kuki on the forehead. She let out a giggle. "Now, let's get going."

As Wally was about to turn the keys in the ignition, his mobile rang. "Oh," he said. He looked at Kuki. "Give me a second." He answered his phone, "Hello?" a pause, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down, slow down!" Wally started the engine and he was out of the driveway. Kuki looked at him. She could see that he was worried, and that made her very worried as well. It was scaring her.

"Wally! What's going on!" she cried. She was at the edge of tears.

He didn't mean to, but he ignored her. Still talking on his mobile, his voice shaking, "Just calm down, we'll be there right away! We're coming to get you, Hoagie, just hang on! Hang in there for me!"

-oOo-

**Ch4 Notes: **Is that boring enough for you (Sarcasm)? Let me tell you, when I was writing that last part of this chapter, my heart was really racing! Can you handle the intensity!!!? - I almost couldn't – pretty sad, huh? Lol.


	5. Gifts from the Past

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door... Okay!?

**Chapter 5: Gifts from the Past**

The following events take place on Saturday, a week before the Gallagher High School Prom, the day of the Prom Band Tryouts:

**12:33 PM**

Many people were sitting in the Gallagher High School Cafeteria. Suddenly, a young man walked through the door. Everyone's attention was turned to him and the piece of paper he held in his hand. He walked across the room. The silence was intense. The man took the piece of paper and posted it on a wall, and left. The second that happened, many people rushed over to see it. Among those people was a young girl: A junior classman with dark black hair that glistened a hint of blue in the light. She looked at the piece of paper and proceeded back to where her friends sat. She took her time walking back, letting the crowd die down as much as possible before she reached her eager peers. When she finally sat down next to one of them, more than half of the people who where there had left. She gestured to them to do the same. The group grabbed their things and proceeded to the schools parking lot.

As they walked, the others wondered what was written on the sheet of paper. "Come on Reira! Tell us!" Hoagie Gilligan pleaded to his friend. With him were Wally Beetles and Tommy Gilligan. Both looked at each other and then looked at Reira in great anticipation. Reira was walking ahead of all of them.

Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks. The others did the same. She turned around, her head looking towards the ground, but then, she looked up at them with a wide smile on her face. She winked to them, then turned around and kept on walking, silently. The rest of them knew exactly what she meant, though. They stayed silent and there was much rejoicing. They made the cut, and they were going to be the band that was performing for the school's upcoming prom. The tryouts went successfully. They would play, and wait for the results. They would not talk to anyone, so they wouldn't be able to give out their bands name. Once they were posted, Reira would go up to see the results. They would leave, and then she would tell the others when it was safe to talk again. Everything worked according to plan. It had to stay a secret. No one was to know who was in that band. As long as they kept that rule, their even greater plan would work out without a hitch. _But there are always hitches…_Reira thought. _I'm happy, but we have to be even more careful now. I hope they realize that too._

Finally Hoagie spoke, trying to keep his excitement to himself. "So, what do you guys want to do for the rest of the day?" he asked them.

"I can't do anything," Wally said. They reached the parking lot, and were stopped at Wally's car. "I've got a date with Kuki later today. So, I'll see you guys later."

"Wally?" Reira stopped him, "I have a favor to ask."

"Sure thing," he replied, "What is it."

"Could you give me a ride to the corner Asian market?"

"That's fine." They got into Wally's car, "We'll see you guys later." Wally and Reira drove off.

"Come on, Tommy, let's go home." Hoagie and Tommy kept walking over to their car. As they walked, Hoagie spotted Abby in the parking lot, talking to some guy that he was able to recognize as a classmate of theirs. The other guy left. Abby noticed Hoagie and Tommy and walked over to them.

"Hi, guys!" she said. She was very happy about something.

"Hi Abby," Hoagie replied. "What's going on?"

**1:04 PM**

"How could you go out with that guy?!" Hoagie yelled.

"What's your problem?" Abby shouted back at him. It struck her as odd to see Hoagie upset over anything. Tommy could only stand their watching the two argue.

"I don't like that guy! He's trouble, and he's a jerk!"

"It doesn't matter if you like him. Abby likes Damian just fine!"

"He's just going to use you! Abby, I'm your friend; I don't want to see anything bad happen to you!"

"If you were Abby's friend, you would be happy for me instead of making a scene in this parking lot! What the hell's wrong with you!?"

"I am not making a scene! I'm telling you the truth! I mean this! I'm okay, but you're making a big mistake and I can't just stand by and take it anymore!"

"Why not let it go by!? Why do you care what Abby does!? Why does it matter to you who Abby dates and who she doesn't!? You always try to pry into my life and get involved whenever someone good for Abby comes around and I can't take it anymore either! I want to know why! Why don't you leave me alone!?"

"I can't leave you alone, Abby!"

"And why the hell not!?"

"Because I love you!" the yelling stopped. Hoagie looked into Abby's eyes, but she turned away and looked at the ground. "I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if anything bad happened to you. That's why." The three of them stood there for a while, not saying anything, until Abby turned around and started to walk away. Hoagie walked up next to her. "Abby, please just listen to me for a sec."

"No you listen," she said, still looking away from Hoagie, "Just let it go. Leave me alone." Hoagie stopped in his tracks.

"I can't do that, Abby." He said softly.

"Hoagie," she stopped and stood in her place, "I don't love you. Not like I used to." Abby got into her car, and drove away, leaving Hoagie there alone, just standing.

**1:45 PM**

There was a knocking on the Gilligan's front door. Hoagie got up from the couch to answer it. Tommy was already on his way downstairs ready to answer it, but Hoagie got there first. Tommy stood a safe distance back from Hoagie. He answered the door.

"Celebration Lunch yay!" Reira stood on the other side with a wide smile and a grocery bag full of lunch boxes that she got from the Asian Market in town. He noticed Wally wave to him from his car in front of his house before driving off. Hoagie stared at Reira with an emotionless face. He took the grocery bag from her hand, took two of the lunch boxes from it, replaced the bag in her hand, and then slammed the door in her face. Reira could hear Tommy say, "What the heck are you doing?" through the door. Hoagie turned around and handed one of the lunch boxes to Tommy before heading upstairs and into room in his depression. Tommy ran up to the door and opened it. Reira still had the smile on her face, but she looked a bit more confused.

"I'm sorry about that," Tommy explained, and let her come inside. She and Tommy sat inside the kitchen, and ate their celebration lunch while Tommy retold to Reira what had happened. "What do you think we should do, Reira?"

"Looks like, we might have to come up with another plan then…" she said, looking down at her dinner. _It was all going too smoothly. Something like this was bound to happen. I told this to myself before, but, this isn't just a minor problem like the kind that I was anticipating._ When they finished, Tommy walked her upstairs to Hoagie's room. Reira knocked on the door quite a few times before just letting herself in with the house's skeleton key. "Hoagie?" she said. The two of them saw Hoagie on his bed with a pencil and a pad of manuscript paper, writing musical notes, and chords down. Reira looked to Tommy, "Can you leave us alone for a little while, please?" she whispered. He understood, and left for his room. Reira walked up to Hoagies bed and sat next to him. "How was your lunch?" she asked him.

"It was good. Thanks for going out of your way to get it for us," he replied, still writing on the manuscript. If there was one thing that Reira had learned while practicing with Hoagie and the others, more than flying planes on his spare time, or inventing things, Hoagie loved music. "I have two new songs I want us to learn, and I have one song that I would like your mom and maybe some of the members of her orchestra to learn also."

"I see." Reira knew that all she could do was let him talk. For now, she would be the one listening. If he wanted to talk about it, he would. That's all there was to it. "We'll do whatever you want, Hoagie; whatever makes you happy." She patted him on the back and made her way to his door.

Her hand was already on the doorknob when he said, "I should have figured something like that would've happened eventually." Reira turned around and sat herself back onto the bed. She told herself that she wouldn't say anything unless permitted to. "I knew that there was no hope for us, but I just couldn't get over it. I just couldn't get over my feelings." It stayed quiet for a while, and then, Hoagie let out a slight chuckle. "A long time ago, the year I turned fourteen, I was walking past a jewelry shop, and I saw the most beautiful necklace. It had a silver pendent that was shaped like a crescent moon and it had five diamonds along its arc. The second I saw it I thought, 'Number 5!' – I, I mean, 'Abby!' Anyway, I was determined to get it for her. I knew the local ice cream shop owner, and when I told him what it was I wanted to get, he gladly let me worked there." Reira looked at the ceiling. She remembered seeing Abby wearing a necklace fitting that description every so often. When she looked to Hoagie, she could see that he was wearing a small smile on his face. It was reassuring to Reira to see this. He continued, "It kind of sucked to work at an ice cream shop while you were on a diet, though." Reira recalled coming to his house for the first time and seeing all of the pictures of him and Tommy when they were still children. Now, the two of them were thin and played on their school's soccer team when the season came around. "But, Abby would come by a lot when I just so happened to be working, so it was fun too. I was able to get her the necklace. When I gave it to her, I put it in her locker with a note when we were back in middle school. I made a sort of poem for her, but I didn't put my name on it. I didn't feel like I should."

"Do you remember what the note said?" Reira didn't mean to speak, but it seemed that Hoagie didn't mind it, "I'd like to hear it if you remember."

"I kind of do," he replied, "It said something like: I will give you everything. Even the moon if you wanted. I'll give you the moon, Abby. I'll give you a moon made of only the most beautiful stars and have it held together by a love that would last for an eternity of only happiness." Hoagie turned to Reira and gasped. She was smiling, but the streak of a tear was visible on the side of her face.

"That's so beautiful," she said, wiping the tear away, "You wrote that when you were only fourteen?"

"Well, I was still thirteen when I gave it to her," Hoagie said. Both of then laughed.

"We'll figure something out, Hoagie," Reira started. Hoagie looked down onto his paper, "We'll do it together."

"Thanks, Rei," Hoagie told her, "Sorry about slamming the door in your face."

"Don't worry about it," she said with that wide smile, "If I recall correctly, I did the same thing to you once. We'll call it even." The two of them sat together for a while. Soon, they began to come up with another plan to make everything work out as best as they could. They talked to each other about the songs that Hoagie wanted the band to learn, and assisted each other in writing drafts of the lyrics. Tommy even helped with some of the lyric writing. Reira was able to arrange the music for her mother's orchestra to learn as well.

**4: 39 PM**

"I hope this is going to work," Hoagie told her.

"In the end, it all works out." She replied. Reira looked over to the clock. A couple of hours had passed since she had arrived at his house. The sun would be setting soon. "I should be getting home. Gordon wanted me to be home early since my mom is out of town."

"Okay, we could give you a ride." Hoagie said. The three of them went downstairs, out the door and to the car. Reira put her hand on the handle of the front passenger door, but suddenly retracted it. "It's unlocked." Hoagie told her.

Reira looked to Tommy, who was already in the back of the car in the seat behind the driver. "Tommy, do you mind switching seats with me?" Reira asked, "I don't mind sitting in the back." Tommy looked at her, confused, but didn't mind the switch. He took the front passenger seat, while Reira took her place in the back seat on the driver's side.

"Tommy," Hoagie began, "Got your seatbelt?"

"Yeah, yeah," he replied.

"Just making sure." They drove off.

Five minutes had passed. Hoagie was driving down a busy road that overlooks a valley on Tommy's side. He was looking out his passenger window, enjoying the view, when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Tommy brought it to the other's attention by saying, "Do you see that guy?"

"No," Hoagie said.

"Maybe I was just seeing things," Tommy spoke again softly. Reira turned her body so that she could see the whole front windshield from where she was sitting. In the distance she saw a large SUV in the oncoming lane swerve violently into Hoagie's lane, and then back into its own. "There it was again!" Tommy said. Hoagie saw it too. Reira gasped. Suddenly, everything was in slow motion in Reira's mind.

Hoagie began to speak, "What is he thinki–," Reira unbuckled her seatbelt and grabbed Hoagie and Tommy's arms, one in each hand. Hoagie pressed down hard onto the breaks as fast as he could, while Hoagie's natural reflexes turned the steering wheel of the car. Tommy screamed. Reira closed her eyes. There was a flash of blue light. Then everything went black.

**4:46 PM**

"Wally! Rei's hurt! She's bleeding everywhere, and she's not getting up! Wally, she won't wake up! Get help quickly, please!!!" Hoagies voice was cracking, "Tommy! Tommy are you okay!"

Tommy was in shock, but he was able to answer his brother, "Yeah, yeah, I'm okay." Tommy moved his head as best as he could. The top of the car was pushed inwards. At the corner of his sight, he could see Reira's bleeding body. "Reira? Reira! Hoagie, we need to help her. Reira!"

"Wally, hurry! Please, hurry! We can't get out! We're stuck in the car. Clarkson Road! Get here, hurry!"

**4:49 PM**

"Hoagie!!! We're coming!!!" Wally screamed as he and Kuki ran down and into the valley which Clarkson Road had overlooked. The SUV collided with the back left side of Hoagie's car and sent it rolling down the hillside. Needless to say, the car was totaled. Kuki let out a cry. As she and Wally came closer to the car, they could see that someone had already helped Tommy and Hoagie out of it. Paramedics had Tommy sitting on the ground to check for signs of a concussion. They had already checked out Hoagie. There was not a single scratch on him. He was standing with fire fighters who were working on getting Reira out of the car.

"Hoagie!" Kuki yelled out. Seeing them, Hoagie rushed over to greet them. Kuki ran up to him and pulled him into a big hug. She was sobbing madly. Wally joined in on the embrace. He too had streaks of worried tears along his face.

"We've got her!" They heard a voice say. All of them turned around to and ran to Reira only to face a horrible sight.

"Oh God!" Kuki wailed, burying her face into Wally's chest. Reira's body was looked like a rag doll. Her jacket was ripped up and stained with blood, and so was one of her pants legs. There were scratches on her face, and her hair, which once glistened a hint of blue, only showed a deep crimson from the gash in the side of her head.

"Reira," Tommy said. He was suddenly next to his brother. Hoagie put his arm around him.

"We need her to be air lifted," the group heard a paramedic say. Soon, a helicopter arrived at the scene and Reira was airlifted to the hospital.

**5:00 PM**

-oOo-

**Ch5 Notes: **This was a really fun chapter to write. I had to really sit and think about what time Reira, Hoagie and Tommy would leave the house. I was trying to make it reasonable, asking myself questions like, "How long would it take to get downstairs? How long would it take for them to get into the car?" Dumb stuff like that. It got a little bit predictable, but I'm happy, and I hope you guys are too. -


	6. Filling in the Blanks with Painful

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door….cries

**Chapter Six: Filling in Blanks with Painful Memories**

Just outside an operating room on the fourth floor of the county hospital sat Hoagie, Wally, Kuki, Abby, and Tommy. Hoagie and Tommy's mom was there with them. She sat with an arm around Tommy, stroking his hair. That's all that they could do: sit there. Reira was in critical condition and was being operated on as they waited. Hoagie looked at his younger brother. Tommy hadn't said a word since they had left the scene. That was over two hours ago.

At the end of the hall, Titania Desdeimona and Gordon stepped out of the elevator and headed over to the nurses counter. Reira's mother came out of her tour as quickly as she could. Tommy, seeing them, got up and ran to Titania, putting her arms around her. "She switched seats with me! She asked me to switch seats and we did, and now she's hurt!" he sobbed. Titania pulled him into a hug.

"There's nothing that you could have done, Tommy," she whispered into his ear, she was crying in between her words. He let go of her, and wiped the tears from his eyes, "Betty!" Titania said with a startled voice. Mrs. Gilligan got up from her seat and gave Mrs. Desdeimona a hug. She continued to cry.

"Titania, you poor thing," Mrs. Gilligan patted Titania's back. The two of them sat down and began to talk amongst themselves. Hoagie watched in amazement.

_They know each other? How? _ He wondered. The thought quickly escaped him. No, there was something else one his mind. He had seen something during the accident. _What was that? I wonder if Tommy might have seen it too, but then again, the thing about the car seats has been bothering him, so maybe he had forgot, or maybe I was the only one who saw._

Another hour had passed, and what was on Hoagie's mind still bothered him. There was only one person who might be able to answer his questions. Hoagie got up from his seat. Abby, Wally and Kuki watched him as he walked over to Reira's mother. "Mrs. Desdemona, can I talk to you?" She looked up at him perplexed, but she didn't mind it. The two of them walked over to the elevator and went downstairs to the hospital cafeteria. The kitchen had closed at seven, but the seating area was still free to sit in. They found a place in the corner of the hall. They sat in silence for a while. Hoagie didn't know how to talk about this.

"What's been bothering you, Hoagie?" Titania asked.

Hoagie let out a sigh. He had brought her all the way down here. It was only right to talk. "During the accident," he started, "I saw this blue light and –," Hoagie looked Titania. He had an inkling that she had known that this was coming, "and I saw something. I think that they were memories, but, they weren't mine."

"Oh," she said quietly, looking to the floor, "What was is that you saw."

Hoagie continued, "I think that they might have belonged to Reira, like I was seeing them through her eyes, but if that was so, then –," It was hard for him to talk about it, really hard. What he saw disturbed him.

"Do you best to tell me, Hoagie," Titania told him, "do your very best."

"Reira was playing in a sand box, I recognized where she was. It was in the city park. There was Nigel. They were running all of a sudden. They were crossing a street, but there was a car, and it was going to hit them, but Reira grabbed him and there was another blue light. She told him that she had to go. Nigel was trying to tell her something but, she left really quick. Then these men came and grabbed her from the side walk. Someone was beating her up; it was a really big man. I could hear her screaming. Then she was looking outside of a cage. There was a little girl there. Reira tried to reach for her! I could hear her voice! She was saying, 'Don't hurt her! I'm the one you wan't!' but then – someone killed the little girl." Hoagie paused to gather his thoughts. He started again, "After that, Reira was looking at the sky I think. Someone lifted her up, but I couldn't see their face. Reira said that whoever it was, he looked familiar. That's it." Hoagie looked at Titania. She had her eyes closed. _I wonder what it is she is thinking about._

"Hoagie," she spoke after an awkward silence, "I'm going to show you something, that you have to promise that you will not reveal to anyone else. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Hoagie said without thinking. Titania grabbed his hand, and suddenly everything around them disappeared and was replaced by a new setting.

-oOo-

Reira was about four years old. She was playing with a red rubber ball in the hall in front of the grand staircase. It was much different. The front hall was furnished with benches on the sides of the two grand mahogany doors, and many very magnificent paintings decorated the walls as you walked up the stairway. There were two other men with her. One of them was obviously Reira's father, Oberon Desdemona I, but the identity of the other man is what really shocked Hoagie. The other man wore a brown aviator's jacket and on top of his head, an aviator's cap with the number "2" sewn into the middle of it. Around his neck was a pair of yellow lensed goggles. _Dad?_

"Yes, it was really cute. My oldest boy met this little girl today. He was really happy! It was Bill Lincoln's daughter." Hoagie Sr. said.

"Is that so?" Oberon asked.

"Yeah, she's a really cute kid."

"Reira," her father called, "There's someone I want you to meet." Reira walked over to her father, who picked her up and showed her to his guest. "This is an old friend of mine. His name is Hoagie Gilligan."

"Hi, Hoagie," Reira said, in a sweet little voice.

"Hello there, tyke," Hoagie Sr. greeted her, "You know, I have a little boy who's just about your age. He's got a baby brother too."

"I hope I get to meet them one day." She replied.

"Aren't you just the cutest little thing," Hoagie Sr. told her. Oberon put his daughter down.

"Go play, Reira." She did exactly that. The scene changed again. It was raining outside. Hoagie Sr. and Oberon were in Reira's room. She was still a little girl, and she was sleeping in her bed.

"This is suicide," Hoagie Sr. said to his old friend, "If you go, you'll die, won't you."

"Probably," Oberon replied, "but I can't let what happened to Lyra happen to Reira too." Tears started to run down Reira's father's eyes. "I have, only one more favor to ask of you, my old friend."

"Anything," Hoagie Sr. replied, "I owe it to you. I'll do anything." Oberon walked up to him, and placed something into his friend's hand. Hoagie Sr. opened his palm and looked down to a blue, diamond shaped pendent.

"Take care of Reira for me," Oberon asked, "Promise you'll protect her when I'm not there to do so myself, alright? If anything happens to her, I'll never forgive you!"

"I promise, my old friend." Hoagie Sr. gave him a hug and tied the pendant around his neck. Oberon walked over to his daughter's bed.

"Hun, I need you to wake up for a bit," he gently shook his daughter out of her slumber.

"What is it, Daddy?"

"Daddy's going to be going away for a while," he told her.

"Can I go too?" Reira asked.

"I'm afraid not." He tried holding back his tears.

"When are you going to come home?"

"To be honest, sweetheart, I don't know."

"Oh," she said, with a sad smile on her face. It was painful for Oberon to see just how well Reira understood what was going on, "I'm going to miss you." She got up from under the covers and hugged her dad.

"You have to promise me something," He whispered, "Promise me that you will never, ever use your powers." Reira looked at him not really sure what he meant. "The world isn't safe for you. There are very bad people who want to hurt you, and they'll get you if you use your powers."

"Like Lyra?" she asked her father.

"Yes, sweetheart," he told her, "Like Lyra. If anything bad happens to you, Hoagie will take care of you while I'm gone. You can count on him."

"Okay, Daddy," she hugged him again, for one last time, "I love you."

"I love you too, Reira." Oberon tucked Reira back into bed before walking over to the door with Hoagie Sr. "Oberon," he called to his son, "Take care of your mom for me." He nodded, and gave his father a hug. He then proceeded to his wife. He held her for a long time, and gave her a loving kiss. "I love you, keep making music, okay?" Titania began to cry into his shoulder, but let go soon after.

"Your transport is ready, Oberon." Gordon said.

"Thank you, Gordon" Oberon replied, "I want you to take good care of my family while I'm gone."

"I would never do anything less than that, sir."

-oOo-

Titania let go of Hoagie's hand, and they found themselves sitting in the hospital cafeteria. Hoagie didn't know what to say. "Reira used her powers when she rescued Nigel all those years ago, and she was taken away from us. Something very similar happened to her older brother Oberon's twin sister, Lyra. She wasn't as lucky as Reira, though." Titania began, "You might recall your father leaving all of a sudden when you were little." Hoagie did remember that. His father told him that he wouldn't be coming back for a very long time. He would come back only once a year since then. "He kept his promise. He left right away to rescue Reira. It took a long time, and Reira underwent a lot of pain since then, but he managed to save her only a few months ago. Your father destroyed the facility that was holding Reira, and other members of my family captive, and was able to save her from the wreckage. Unfortunately, our family was wiped out long before then. She's safe to use her powers now, whenever she pleases, but she chooses to use them only in an emergency."

Hoagie looked down. _So, Reira had saved us. __Just like she saved Nigel._

_"_When she started school with you, she saw the resemblance between you and your father right away. She told me how badly she felt for taking your father away from you for so long. She was familiar with how unfair it was to have a father be taken away from you, and thought it was selfish of her to do that to you."

"But she didn't have anything to do with that. I'd never blame her for that!" Hoagie said suddenly.

"Even so, she has been trying her best to see that you are happy. Something to do with Bill Lincoln's daughter." Titania said slyly. Hoagie laughed nervously, just like Reira.

"Yeah, but, our plans just keep making turns for the worst." He said. "Now that Reira's not here to help me, I don't know what to do next."

"Why don't you just talk to Abby while she is sleeping?" Titania suggested. Hoagie looked at her unconvinced. "Her father would do that all the time, when he couldn't sleep at night. He would always say that, even though they are sleeping, they are listening. It comforted him."

"Yeah, but when would I get the chance to talk to her while she's sleeping?"

"I'm sure that an opportunity would present itself really soon." Titania assured him. "Hoagie, may I ask you something now?"

"Sure," he replied, wondering what she would ask.

"What ever happened to Nigel?"

"He went to outer space to help out space aliens like you," he told her. _Oh no! I wasn't supposed to tell that to anybody! Oh well. She probably doesn't even believe me._

"Is that so?" she asked him, "I'll have to send a message to my planet telling them to greet him with open arms." She got up and made her way to the elevator. Hoagie followed her, not knowing whether she was being sarcastic or not.

-oOo-

**Ch6 Notes: **I was having a really tough time with this one – not the chapter itself, but its title. It was originally called, "Painful Memories," but as I was rereading this chapter for like, the fourth time in 24 hours, I started to lean on the title, "Travels Through Time." Finally, I was able to settle with the current, after rereading this chapter for the fifth time. - If any of you are confused about the family tree, I'll care to explain: Reira's father is Oberon Desdeimona **the first**. Reira had an older sister named Lyra, who was the twin sister of Reira's older brother, Oberon **the second**, thus making Reira, Oberon **the third**. Hope that clears some things up. Believe me; it was necessary to explain that. When I was reading, I couldn't follow it either.


	7. Never Good Enough

**Disclaimer: **Here we go again… I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door. [Status: Stage 5: Acceptance Lol.

**Chapter 7: Never Good Enough**

When Titania and Hoagie returned to the fourth floor, they learned that Reira's surgery went smoothly, that she was stable and that she was already moved up to her hospital room. As soon as this information was disclosed to them, they made their way to the seventh floor, where Reira's room was located. There, they found Gordon, Mrs. Gilligan and Tommy outside one of the room doors. Tommy was fast asleep, and resting his head on his mom's shoulder. She gestured them into the room next to her. Inside, Reira was sleeping in her hospital bed. Her leg was in a leg brace, a cooling system hooked up to it, and her arms and part of her head was bandaged up. Hoagie looked at the wall clock inside the room. It was almost half past ten. The others were in the room too, sitting on a long bench, sleeping. What was left was one more open spot between Wally(his arm around Kuki) and Abby, who was leaning on the arm of the bench. Hoagie looked at Titania, who gave him a nod then left the room.

The opportunity had presented itself, and Hoagie knew what to do. "Abby, are you sleeping?" he whispered. There was no reply. He continued, "You know, I _have_ tried really hard to let you go before, but I still couldn't do it." He stopped for a moment, feeling really silly talking to someone who wasn't really listening, but he owed it to Reira; he knew that he did. If she wasn't so worried about him, she wouldn't have stayed at his house any longer, and she would have gone home, without any injuries. She had already helped him so much; it was his turn to do something.

"It really sucks you know," he continues, "Watching you go out with a bunch of other guys. It really sucked! It sucked having to go to sleep every night, knowing that it wasn't me that you were thinking of – knowing that no one loved me in return – knowing that know no one would ever love me in return." He felt tears welling up inside of him, but he kept on talking, "I wished every night for you to notice me, even though in the back of my mind, I knew it was no use. The only thing I could do was stand by and watch you date guys that didn't give a damn about you. If it made you happy, I tried my best not to interfere, but to support you. As much as it hurt me on the inside, I would always try my best not to cry!" Hoagie put his hand over his eyes and took a couple of deep breathes.

"But I was right, wasn't I? All of those guys ended being jerks to you! You still kept going out with them, though. Why, Abby?" he asked her. "What's so wrong with me? I would take you around the world with me; we would discover new places together. We would do more, experience more, and feel more, together. But in this dream of mine, you go with me, because you wanted to." Hoagie paused for a while. Wally had stirred in his sleep. Hoagie would never come to realize that he wasn't sleeping during any of his conversation.

"I would give you everything, Abby." Hoagie looked at her. She was wearing the moon necklace that he had gotten her years ago. "You know I would give you everything. I gave you the moon, didn't I?" Hoagie could hold his tears no longer. Even so, he continued to talk, "I gave you the moon: made of only the most beautiful stars and had it held together by my love for you that would last for an eternity of only happiness. Every night, desperately I hoped, that you would share that eternity, with me."

Wally could feel Kuki's tears falling onto his hand. He didn't open his eyes, but figured that she had been awake the entire time too. "I'm glad that you like the necklace enough to still wear it after all these years, but," Hoagie went on, "I guess it just wasn't good enough. It'll never be good enough. I'll never be good enough, for you. We'll stay friends forever, I guess, but it's better than nothing. Right?" Hoagie laughed sadly, "Best friends…" Hoagie wiped the rest of his tears away. He felt better. Getting all of his bottled up feelings out, saying it out loud for the first time comforted him a bit.

Hoagie's mother walked into the room. "Hoagie?" she called to him, "It's getting a little late. We should be going."

"Okay, Mom." He replied. He shook Wally and Kuki a bit. "Hey, I'm leaving now."

"Oh," Wally said. He and Kuki yawned, trying their best to look convincing. "We'd better get going too, Kuki. Hey, Abby?"

"Wah?" she said as she woke from her sleep.

"We're all going now. I can take you back home if you'd like," Wally offered.

"Nah," she told him, "My dad's shift is going to end soon, so I'll just go home with him."

They said their goodbyes to Reira's mom and Gordon. As they walked through the parking garage, Wally went up to Hoagie and patted him on the back. Hoagie stared at him, not knowing what it was for. Quickly, Wally told him, "She'll be okay."

"We'll figure out everything together. Okay?" Kuki added.

Hoagie looked at both of them and smiled. He laughed a tired laugh and told them, "Just like old times."

-oOo-

Abby sat alone in Reira's room. Gordon and Titania were just outside the door talking to each other. _That fool_. Abby was thinking to herself. _Why did he go saying all those things for!? _Abby looked up and yelped at the sight of Reira sitting upright and smiling at her. "How long have you been awake!?" Abby asked her.

"Long enough to notice that you weren't sleeping while Hoagie was talking to you," she replied.

"How did you –," Abby gapped at her.

"I know what it looks like when someone is pretending to be asleep," she told her.

Abby's father's shift ended, and she left Reira's room, not saying another word.

-oOo-

**Ch7 Notes: **Working chapter title: "Abby, are you sleeping?" Oh, Hoagie is such an emo looser. Poor thing. _I _love you, Hoagie! Anyway, for any of you readers that have gotten this far into the story, congratulations!!! For me, this means that everything is going pretty well, and that makes me happy! Have you been writing down those parodies/allusions? If you have, if you have noticed _all_ of them, so far (and I kept track as I wrote this) there are ten parodies/allusions in this story as of the end of this chapter. Now, unless I wrote one without realizing, and I'm pretty sure that I didn't, there shouldn't be any more than ten. - Keep it up, everybody!


	8. Untold Unsung Unknown

**Disclaimer:** Lol, "disclaimer" ha! That's what I am, and what I am going to do... I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door. If I did, then it would probably suck!!! and that's why I'm totally okay with not owning it.

**Chapter 8: Untold, Unsung, Unknown**

Reira was discharged from the hospital on the Monday after the accident, but wasn't going to be allowed to go to school until the week after. For Hoagie, Kuki, Wally, and Abby, life managed to continue somehow. However, for Abby and Hoagie, having classes together, couldn't have made the aura around them more awkward. Hoagie had made many attempts just to strike up an everyday conversation with Abby many times, but Abby would only ignore him. She didn't even make any attempts to talk to him. Wally and Kuki would try talking to her, but she ignored them also. They had tried so much, in fact, that by Wednesday, they had bothered Abby so much, that she stopped talking to them completely. She would even disappear during lunch. Hoagie would pretend not to notice, though his two worried friends could tell that it was tearing him apart on the inside.

In her room, Reira sat upright on her bed, reading a book. That Wednesday, it was raining outside, and would stay raining for the remainder of the week. _How cliché… _She thought, laughing a bit to herself. She would occasionally, look up from the pages of her book and become drawn in by the grey scenery outside her bedroom window. As she watched the water flow down the glass of the window, Reira would think about all of the things that Hoagie had said to Abby the previous Saturday. She had no idea that he was in so much pain. He held it inside of himself so well, yet so dangerously. It amazed her, and made her wonder just how he could suppress it for so long. _It's incredible, yet heartbreaking at the same time. _He placed her bookmark in her book and put it under her pillow. _I wonder what Abby was thinking when she heard it, and Wally and Kuki. They've all been friends for much longer than I've known any of them. Did they ever realize that he was in so much pain? __Probably not.__ I overlooked it completely. I never thought that Hoagie would be someone to worry about. He never seemed like the kind of person who would dwell over things like this._

"Reira," her mother knocked on the door. She would come and check on her daughter every so often. "You've got a visitor."

"Who is it," Reira asked her, "Is it Hoagie and the others?"

"No," a vaguely familiar voice said. Titania opened the door wide, and a young man in his early twenties walked in through the door. He had short dark black hair that had the same blue shine that Reira's had when light struck it in exactly the right place, but unlike Reira's, his eyes were a very dark grey. He wore a black jacket and jean pants. He held a cardboard box in his arms. Reira looked at him, surprised but happy. "Hey, Sis!"

"Oberon!" she called. Oberon set the box next to Reira's grand piano, walked over to his sister and gave her a hug. "I haven't seen you in so long." Reira's eyes started to fill, but she wiped them away.

"Sorry I wasn't able to see you earlier," he told her, "but I got caught up with work and school, and I was helping with other things too." Reira looked, eyebrow raised. "It's a secret."

"So, how long will you be in town?" Reira asked her brother. Oberon was an archeologist, or studying to become one, at least. His studies and his training took him all over the world.

"Quite a while," he replied, "I'm on break right now. I've been learning how to fly planes on my spare time, too! One day, I'll take you." He got up, and walked over to the piano. "I've got a surprise for you." He blew the dust off of the piano keys and began playing what Reira was able to recognize as one of her favorite songs: Piano Concerto No. 2, by Sergei Rachmoninov. Suddenly, a noise came from the cardboard box. The head of a Saint Bernard puppy popped out and began to bark at Oberon's playing. Oberon laughed. "He would only growl at every other song I play. This is the one I'm pretty sure that he likes the most. This puppy is yours Reira!" A great smile appeared on her face. Oberon left the piano, picked up the puppy, and put him on Reira's lap. "I rescued him from an animal shelter about a week ago, and brought him with me on the plane ride over here."

"I want to name him Shinichi!" Reira said, hugging the puppy, who returned his gratefulness by licking her face.

"Well, actually. My friends already started calling him, 'Rach', short for, 'Rachmoninov'," he told her.

"I like that too," Reira said. She held the puppy up, "Sergei Rachmoninov."

"Reira," her mother called to her. Both Reira and Oberon had forgotten that she was in the doorway. "Seven of the members of the orchestra agreed to do prom night. We rehearsed your arrangement, and it should go pretty smoothly come Saturday evening."

"Oh yeah, Mom, mentioned what you were doing for Mr. Gilligan's son," Oberon spoke, "If you need any help –,"

"I'll let you know," Reira told him, playing with her new puppy.

"It's very important that I see Hoagie, Tommy, and Wally before then, maybe Friday. Can you call them and tell them to come over here?" Reira's mother asked. Reira wondered what she needed to see them about. Titania, noticing her daughter's questioning expression, went on to say, "It's a surprise."

"I can do that later," Reira told her. She spent the rest of the day with Rach and her brother. Still, she wondered whether her friends would be okay.

-oOo-

"Why does it have to be pouring!?" Wally never liked making deliveries to teachers in the rain. It was third period, Audio Visual class that Friday morning, a class that he and Hoagie shared, and like Wally had exclaimed, it was pouring harder than it had been the previous days. As usual, they were spending most of the class period walking around the school making deliveries to teachers (TV's, DVD players, tapes, projectors etc.). Together they pushed a large TV on a cart with an electric blue tarp over it to protect it from the downpour.

"Because the world sucks," Hoagie told him. There was a very cynical attitude about him, Wally noticed. Wally looked at his friend from underneath his orange and black hooded jacket. Hoagie had been like that since the beginning of the week. Even during practice, Hoagie always seemed to be annoyingly pessimistic.

_He could've always talked to me…_ Wally thought to himself, recalling what Hoagie had said the Saturday of the accident. _I didn't even know he could even think about things like that._ "You wanna talk about it, mate?"

"There's nothing talk about," Hoagie replied.

"Will you just drop the attitude!? It's really depressing!" Wally kept on pushing the cart, but noticed that it had gotten much more difficult to push. He looked about himself and noticed that Hoagie was no longer pushing the cart, but standing a few feet behind him, staring off into the distance. Wally looked around and saw just exactly had his friend's attention. Abby was a teacher's aide during third period and would often be allowed have leave after finishing her work, so it wasn't surprising to see her just sitting in different places around school. She would often tag along with the two of them making deliveries, but Hoagie and Wally knew all too well that she wouldn't be tagging along with them today. Underneath the awning of the school's library, they could see Abby chatting up with Damian, or at least that's what Hoagie had wished they had only been doing. In reality, the couple was kissing each other in the rain. "Uh, mate? Look, I know that you're upset and all but –," Wally couldn't say anything more, for Hoagie started to push his cart by himself and away from the sight of Abby kissing the other guy.

After dropping off the TV, Hoagie and Wally started back to their class in silence. Wally tried to talk again, "Look mate, let's talk about this –,"

"There's nothing to talk about, Wally!" Hoagie shouted. The two of them were near the library again. Hoagie looked around and he could still see Abby and he could still see Damian with her. She looked over to them for a second, but only rolled her eyes. Hoagie ran off in the other direction.

"Wait, Hoagie!" Wally called his friend. The two of them found themselves running across the football field, completely soaked from head to toe. "Hoagie! We need to talk!"

"No, we don't!!!" Hoagie stopped running and turned to Wally, who was about a quarter of the field away from where he was. Hoagie shouted in anger, "Just drop it already!"

"You listen here," Wally yelled, panting, "Your mopping around pisses me off! It's depressing! I know that you're feeling sort of rejected seeing Abby with other guys but –,"

"What do you know about being rejected!?" Hoagie retorted, "You and Kuki were made for each other! There was no way she was going to reject you!!!"

"I know! You were the one who told me that! You were the one who said that if I waited too long, then it would be too late," Wally told him, "You've only got yourself to blame, Hoagie! I don't care! You got what you said you would! If you weren't such a hypocrite, it wouldn't have been too late!!!" He ran up closer to Hoagie, ready to punch him for being an idiot if he had to, "Abby's gone out with tons of other guys! What's so different about this time!?"

"She said that she didn't love me, Number 4!!!" The two of them stopped yelling at each other. Wally hadn't heard that name for years. He didn't know about the incident between Hoagie and Abby in the parking lot, either. "She told me that she didn't love me, Wally." Hoagie said softly. Wally walked next to his best friend, and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Look," Wally began, "It's going to work out." Hoagie smiled gratefully at these words. His friends have always been there. They always supported each other, and no matter how tough it's been, they always managed to get through it. The rain started to die down to just a light drizzle. "You'll see. Everything's gonna be fine."

"Thanks," Hoagie whisperd. His phone began to ring. "Hello? Oh, Reira, how's everything going?" he and Wally started walking back to their class. "Tonight? Uh, sure, I guess that's okay. Alright, bye."

"What was that about?"

"Reira said that her mom wants us at her house after school, and they want us to bring Tommy too," Hoagie told him.

"I wonder what that's about…"

-oOo-

"Wow!" Wally shouted, looking at himself in the mirror. He stood tall, proudly admiring his new look for prom. Wally was wearing a tuxedo shirt with a black vest with orange pinstripes, and a pair of clean pressed black tuxedo pants. The best part, he thought, was his black mask that covered the upper portion of his face. "We're going to look totally awesome!"

Tommy wore the same clothes, but his vest had two blue stripes coming from the middle of his shoulders and down his chest. He too looked at himself in the mirror. What he admired the most was his black mask, though slightly smaller, it was identical to Wally's. "I feel _incredible_!" Tommy said, making a very handsome pose in the mirror.

Hoagie looked at himself in the mirror. He too was wearing the same clothes. His vest was almost completely black. In the right light, there appeared on his vest a fog grey swirling pattern. His mask, though it was the same as the others, in that it concealed the upper part of his face, was not black, but white. _Why does mine have to be the different one? Why do I always have to be the different one, for crying out loud!? _He frowned. Honestly, he couldn't take his mind off of Abigail, and what he had seen with Wally earlier that day. "That mask looks much better than a black one would." Hoagie turned around. Reira was standing at the door, holding herself up with crutches. She was wearing a black blouse that used a shoe lace sort of system to fit it. Underneath, she wore a white t-shirt. She also had on a pair of parachute pants that her mom had modified to look very much like a skirt, easily concealing her leg brace. Hoagie and the others thought that she looked very medieval in her outfit. Hoagie was startled to see that suddenly the head of a puppy had peeked out from underneath Reira's pants. "Oh there you are, Rach! I've been looking for you, and you've been right there the whole time!"

The other three laughed, even Hoagie, and that's the first he was able to laugh for the whole week. They all stood there in Titania's bedroom, spending almost all of the evening fitting clothes that they would were as a band at the prom. "I don't like it!" Reira's mother shouted.

"Is there something the matter, Master Titania?" Gordon showed up suddenly in the room, making all of them except for Titania jump in surprise.

"You were the one who got us these!" Wally protested, "I like 'em!"

"It's your hair!" Titania argued, "Blond! Brown! Reira, yours is okay, but you three!" She walked over to them, grabbing each of them by the head and examining their hair color. She walked over to her bed, sat down and sighed. "That's so frustrating!"

"It's not that big of a deal, is it?" Hoagie asked.

"I'll figure something out tonight," Titania began, "I need you to come back tomorrow, in the morning."

"What!?" the three of them cried in unison.

"We need to work on the songs with those members of Mom's orchestra, too. We need to be as prepared as possible. Also, it'll give a chance to go over the plan one more time." Reira commented. The other three looked at each other and silently agreed. "Wally?"

"Yeah?"

"I think that tonight would be a good night to explain to Kuki what we've been doing," Reira advised.

"Why did we have to wait this long!?" he wondered aloud. "She's been suspicious of me from the very beginning!"

"Because, I'm inviting her over to dinner before prom tomorrow night," she informed him. _It's better this way. It's the right thing to tell her tonight because that way she doesn't have time to tell anyone else, so there's no way that our plan will somehow make it to Abby. She'd be too busy getting ready. _"And, you won't be able to dance with her for a while."

"What!? Why? Why!?"

"Is it not obvious?" Reira looked puzzled, "If people see you dancing with each other, then they might realize who you are, or they might think that she's messing around behind your back, and then people will wonder where you are, and all of this stuff will happen that we don't really want to deal with." _I don't want there to be anymore problems…I'm sure none of us do._

-oOo-

"Ah!!! You look so cuuuuute!!!" Kuki screamed.

"Heh, you really think so?" Wally wondered of her, showing off to her his new look and running his fingers through his newly colored hair. It was dark like Reira's, but was highlighted orange, in some places. Hoagie had the same dark hair, but his highlights were a very crimson red color. Both he and Wally had their hair cut much shorter than it used to be, and combed it neatly. Hoagie had also refrained from wearing his hat tonight. Tommy thought he was the coolest one of them all with his black and purple hair. Reira had helped him spike his hair upward and to each side. It reminded him of a bunch of video games he would play. Mrs. Desdeimona had thought the idea up last night. _It would hide your real identities more fully and it works for your band too, _is what she had told them, and that Saturday morning, she colored each of their heads with their respective color. From the corner of his eye, Wally saw Hoagie and Tommy chuckling while fixing their ties in the mirror. "I mean, it's not supposed to look _cute_, it's supposed to look really hard rock!" He replied.

"Fine! But I still think that it looks cute," Kuki laughed. All of them, Kuki, Wally, Tommy and Hoagie, where at Reira's house getting ready for the prom.

"You did a good job, Mom," Reira spoke to her mother.

"I know!" she replied happily. "But I still wish you would have gotten asked to your first prom, Reira. I'm upset with you."

"I did get asked," Reira told her, calmly fixing her hair, "I just turned them all down. We were going to be performing, so it would have been a waste to go with any of them if I was going to be too busy with the band, and besides," she continued, "I'm not interested in dating anyone right now." Reira laughed.

"Dang it," Tommy whispered under his breath, while still trying to straighten his tie. Hoagie, hearing him, hit Tommy's arm with his elbow, hard. "Hey! What was that for!?" Tommy shouted. Hoagie only gave him a grim glare in return, as he too was still trying to straighten his tie. "Oh come on," Tommy said, bring his voice back down to a whisper, "It's not like _you_ weren't into older girls once too!"

"Yeah," Hoagie told him, "But at least I had a chance with Cree."

"Pfft, yeah, that's what you wish." Tommy laughed. The two of them walked away from the mirror after placing their masks over their eyes.

"Are we all set" Titania asked them. They all replied with a nod. "Alright then. Gordon!"

"Yes, Master Titania," Gordon appeared out of now where, again startling the others.

"Where is my son?" she asked him.

"Master Oberon sits quietly enjoying the tranquility of his own room, Master Titania."

"Well, tell him to get down here!" She demanded, "He's going to be driving the boys, while you and I will be taking the girls. Would you please, Gordon?" she suddenly asked rather kindly.

"Of course, Master Titania." As he walked out, the boys gathered their equipment (Kuki kindly assisted Reira with the electric drum set) and walked to the car garage with Titania. When they had got there, Oberon and Gordon where already there and in the driver's seat of two identical cars. After they loaded their things, and checked, and double checked everything for the third time in a row, they were off to their high school prom.

"So where are we going?" Oberon asked the boys.

Hoagie took a map he printed out of his pocket and handed it to him, "The prom is at the Hotel Rock an' Roll," he told him.

"Wow, that explains this year's theme pretty well."

"Hey, Oberon," Tommy spoke from the back seat of the car, "Your mom also mentioned another surprise after she took our pictures earlier."

"I don't really know about that." He told him. Oberon continued to drive. Hoagie was next to him on the driver's side. "Excuse us for a little bit, you two." Tommy and Wally looked at him for a second, then a tinted window that separated the front and back end, rose between them. Oberon looked towards Hoagie, who was in his thoughts, looking out his side window. "So," Oberon started, "How's your dad been lately?"

"I haven't seen him yet," Hoagie replied, still gazing out the window.

"I didn't think you would know anyway," Oberon said and cheerfully continued, "But, my mom told me that he would be coming back next weekend, and he'd be coming back to stay, too."

"My mom told me the same thing."

"I just wanted to say thank you for everything you've done for my sister, since I couldn't be there, and all."

Hoagie looked at the driver. He didn't even know that Reira had an older brother until earlier that week. "It's alright. All of a sudden, this girl was placed in our homeroom class, and we all became close friends, but she didn't mention her family that much so…"

"Did she seem, _normal_ to you and your friends?" Hoagie looked at Oberon again. It was an odd question to ask, but it was easy for Hoagie to answer.

"She seemed like a really cool person. There was never anything strange about her, she just wouldn't talk about herself very much is all."

"I was worried, when my mom told me that she would be starting school two weeks after her rescue."

_Two weeks later!!! Now I get it. That's why he asked whether or not she seemed normal. _Hoagie thought to himself.

"I wish I could have seen her, when she got home," Oberon said, "My mom told me that when Reira woke up, she was very scared. She didn't remember anything about being rescued. She hated being alone in her room. Gordon had to stay with her for a while. She would wake up from the quietest noises and wouldn't be able to sleep for nights in a row." There was a long pause. Hoagie didn't know what to say. Over half an hour went by before Oberon spoke again. "Could you imaging it? Being trapped in a cage for more than half of your life, and going to school, starting a new life as though nothing had even happened?" Hoagie couldn't imagine anything more horrible for a person to go through, and he only saw glimpses of Reira's memories before. He had never realize just how strong Reira was.

"You had another sister too, didn't you?" Hoagie asked.

"I did." Oberon answered, "Lyra. That was her name; my twin sister."

"Your mom told me, that she was taken away too," Hoagie told him.

"She was. After Lyra died, Reira would go around the house looking for her. I was surprised, when she asked me if her sister was hiding, or playing a trick on her. What was worse was that I couldn't tell her anything either. I remember, the day that Reira was taken, I was ten and I was with her in the park. I saw her and her friend running on across the street. I chased after them, but then another car came. She used her powers. Then next thing I know, she and the other boy are on the other side of the street, and she's running away. I ran after her as fast as I could, but, a van came by, and just picked her up off of the sidewalk."

"Your sister is a brave person!" Hoagie said all of a sudden. Oberon glanced at him for a second then looked back at the road in front of them. "I mean, she's alive and that's all that matters, right?"

Oberon gave a nod. "Gordon and I spent the whole night running around the city in the rain, just looking for that van. My mom was out of town, but as soon as we told her, she got on a plane right away. I remember thinking, 'Why did she have to go and do that? Why does she always have to try and help?' In the end, I realized that it was just because she's a good person. She couldn't help it. She's too much like Lyra: Always helping people."

"She is, isn't she?" Hoagie remarked, "Sometimes, the others and I don't even realize it, but Reira always had our best interests. I mean, looked where we are now!" They were suddenly pulling up close to the Hotel Rock an' Roll. Oberon rolled down the tinted window. Wally and Tommy were absolutely enthusiastic.

"Hoagie, can you believe it! We're going to performing in there!" Tommy shouted!

"We are going to rock!" Wally added. Oberon dropped the boys off at the front of the hotel. Titania and Reira were already in the lobby. "Hey! Where's Kuki!?" Wally asked.

"She's helping Gordon and my brother get everything transported into the hotel's concert room. Besides, there are students here already. You can't be seen with Kuki right now." One of the Hotel employees showed them to the hallway that would lead to the dressing room behind the concert room. The hallway was lined with pictures and posters of groups and famous icons that performed at the hotel.

"Wow!" Tommy said, "I can't believe we get a chance to play here, on the same stage as they did!" As they neared the dressing room door, all of them stopped to glorify the most recent poster that was hung. It was the four of them. Each had their very own corner of the poster. In one corner was Wally, the next was Hoagie, and then Tommy, and last but not least was Reira. In the middle of the poster, it read in big bold letters: Untold, Unsung, Unknown.

"I thought it up early this morning, while you guys were practicing. I managed to put it together, and get it printed and sent here." Titania told them. The others had huge smiles on their faces. "I was thinking you could call yourselves 'Triple U', for short."

"That's it!" Hoagie said with excitement.

"I'll stick with that!" Tommy exclaimed.

"I want a copy of this poster!" Wally joined them.

"Thanks, Mom," Reira told her, "I didn't expect this much. I'm really grateful."

"It's the least I could do for your birthday, Reira," her mother replied.

"It's your birthday!" The other's shouted in unison. Reira only laughed at them.

"Hi guys!" Kuki, Gordon, and Oberon where walking down the hall. "Everything is set up on stage already," Kuki said, "They've just started letting people into the concert room!"

"That's our queue," Reira said. The other's nodded.

"Listen you guys," Titania started, "No matter what happens, you guys are going to do fine. Everything is going to work out."

"Let's get out there, and rock already!" Wally shouted.

As she watched the others rush into the dressing room, Reira closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. _Everything is going to work out. _She looked to Hoagie, who was throwing crumpled up tissues at Wally and Tommy. _I promise._

-oOo-

**Ch8 Notes: **This was by far the hardest chapter to write. I was honestly going through some sort of writer's block because I just couldn't make this chapter as flow as well as I wanted it to. I mean, it took me a freakin' week to get this one chapter done!!! I always had trouble with this part in the whole story. In my head, it always went from the car accident straight to the performance. Well, I'm pretty glad that I've got this part done. If anyone wants to see the poster of Triple U that I made, then you can go to my fanfiction profile page, and there will be a link there. If anyone wants one of the individual pictures, just go ahead and ask me, and I'll give you a link to the individual pics.

Up next: Song fics!!!! Don't worry. I tried my best not to make it too song ficy. -


	9. Behind the Mask

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door! Enough about that! Start reading!!!

**Chapter 9: Behind the Mask**

Kuki wasn't joking: There were a lot of people. When Hoagie, Wally, Tommy and Reira got on stage, the crowd started screaming in excitement. The concert room was as large as their schools gymnasium. It had two floors; the second floor had open tables for people to eat and drink and was open like a loft looking down onto the stage. There were many people seated there too. (Okay, think of the place in the movie "She's All That" I can't really describe it. But I bet that if you've seen that movie, you're going, "Oh, I get it!") Hoagie took one of the microphones off of its stand and started, "How's everyone tonight? Are we ready to have a good time!?" They replied all sorts of words, none of which Hoagie or the others could understand.

Almost half of the night went by. Triple U was rocking like no other. Everyone was enjoying themselves, but Hoagie couldn't get his mind straight. Though he could have easily spaced out during the songs looking for Abby, thankfully, and Reira was really equally thankful, he did not. However, Hoagie began singing their songs out of order. Reira looked around the room as best as she could; she knew something had to be wrong, and she found it.

_-And it's all in my head – but she's touching his chest now__He takes off her dress now __Let me go_

_I just can't look; It's killing me – and taking control… _

Hoagie saw Abby, in her beautiful midnight blue and black dress, dancing with Damian.

_Jealousy: Turning saints into the sea – swimming through sick lullabies – choking on your alibis_

_But it's just the price I pay! Destiny is calling me:_

_Open up my eager eyes, __'__cause I'm Mr. Brightside_.

_Just hang in there, Hoagie…_Reira thought. _Just a little while longer…_Reira kept her eyes out, looking for the signal, and there it was. Oberon was at the entry door of the concert room. He was making the shape of a triangle with his hands and holding it over his head. Hoagie noticed it too. It meant that the orchestra members had arrived and they were ready at anytime to take the stage whenever they were ready. Hoagie turned his head backward for a moment and gave glance at Reira. She nodded. _It's time._

The song ended, and the crowd cheered for more. Hoagie took the microphone back off of its stand again. "I think it's time for a little break, for my friend here," he gestured to Wally, "and for myself also! Yeah, we want to dance too, and I think our drummer back there is getting a little bored!" Reira, with Hoagie's assistance helped her to the front and center of the stage (She didn't want to have her crutches). Tommy took her place at the drum set, and the seven members who agreed to participate from Titania's orchestra, made their way onto the stage as well. "I think that she wants to sing everybody!" Hoagie exclaimed. There were whistles and hollers from the mass of people. They were screaming things like, "Sexy thing!" or, "Marry Me!" or, "She's even hotter up close!!!" which made Reira laugh to herself on the inside. "Hey!" Hoagie spoke again, "I like to think that I'm hot too! Am I right?" Hoagie set his guitar down and spun in place. There was a cheer of satisfaction from all of the girls in the audience. "Okay, like I said, my friend and I here want to dance too, so that's what we're going to do! Who's up for dancing to a slow song with one of us?" The screaming from the girls became louder and more enthusiastic. Hoagie handed the microphone to Reira, and he and Wally made their way off stage and onto the dance floor.

Wally found Kuki, and took her hand to dance with him. There was a disappointed murmur coming from all of the girls who wanted to dance with him. The same happened for Hoagie. He walked straight to Abby, bowed and took her hand, "Can I have this dance, Miss." Abby was absolutely flustered with excitement that all she could do was nod in approval. Her date, Damian, didn't look to happy at all. When the music started, many people danced as well, but they had formed circles around the two couples. They were the center of their attention.

_On the day I couldn't see my heart,_

_ I felt insecure.__The meaning of loving somebody…__It's something I decide myself.__Truth can be found in everything._

Hoagie started dancing with Abby in the style of a waltz. He was admiring her every detail: the soft shade that the light brought upon her face, her flowing hair that was down and discarded of the red beret, and the silver necklace that was shaped like a crescent moon with five diamonds that hung around her neck. Yes, he admired her, as everyone around were admiring them.

_I promise you, I won't wander off anymore._

_I'll be strong...and prove myself to you._

_I won't run away, I'll turn around to face you, _

_so I can see how you feel, to heart._

"This is a really beautiful song," Abby whispered, "The string players are a nice touch."

"She helped me write the music for it," Hoagie replied. _I hope she doesn't recognize me. _He extended his arm to twirl her, "You look absolutely fabulous tonight, Miss."

Abby placed her hand on his face, brushing back some of his hair, and feeling the smooth surface of his white mask. "How can someone as cool as you be going to Gallagher High School without me knowing it? It feels like I know you from somewhere else."

"I'm not cool," Hoagie told her, "and I do go to the same school as you."

"I've never seen you before," she told him. Hoagie was laughing in his head.

"I know you didn't. I've said 'hi' to you a few times before," _She really doesn't recognize me…_Hoagie extended his arm, making Abby twirl out, then twirl back in, "but I don't think you ever saw me."

_I will believe_

_that we can come together,_

"How could I have gone without noticing you?" Abby asked him.

Even though Hoagie knew the question was for her, he replied, "Easily, unfortunately."

_right now, right here, and love each other_

_So in order to light your light fill me_

"I feel like, I've missed out on something really great," Abby told him.

"But you're happy right now, as things are, aren't you?" Hoagie asked her.

"Yeah," Abby replied, "I am pretty happy with the way things are."

"As long as you are happy, then that's all that matters," he told her.

_I hug you tightly._

Though it was only for a little while, he was glad that he could dance with Abby.

_I will believe, so the two of us can be together in love_

_In order for my wish to reach the sky, __I will look for you, and pray for the two of us_

_A pair of thoughts, now they can come together and form a whole:_

_Your precious love._

Hoagie would hold her closely as the song would end. The crowd clapped calmly and sanely for the two couples and for Reira's singing. Hoagie pulled her away slightly. His lips where close to hers, but that was as close as he knew that they ever would be. He moved his head, and kissed her cheek. He whispered in her ears, "Thank you for this dance," before walking away and back to the stage. Wally was also making his way there through the swarm of people. Hoagie was sorry that it was over. He didn't want it end – it hurt too much that it had to. As he got onto the stage, he was doing his best to smile. Reira handed him the microphone, while Tommy helped her back to her drum set. "Thank you again, ladies, for that dance. Did everyone like that song!!?" Approval filled the room. "Okay! Well," Hoagie started again as it got a little quieter, "We're going to do one more slow song before taking a short break." Hoagie replaced the microphone, and then turned around to face the others, who were all looking at him. Hoagie pointed his thumb at the center of his chest, and Reira, Wally, and Tommy all nodded.

The song began. Reira noticed that again there was something wrong with Hoagie. Wally and Tommy realized it too. Hoagie voice was awfully hoarse. _Maybe he's just tired…_Reira though. They were all close enough to him to see that he was crying. Hoagie was looking back at Abby in the audience, who was walking back to where Damian was sitting. _You can rest when we are done, Hoagie. _

_When you go, would you have the guts to say:_

_"I don't love you, like I loved you, Yesterday_

Tommy looked to his brother. Hoagie had his eyes closed. _Just hang in there, Hoagie. _Tommy thought, _I know it hurts, but just a little while longer._

_You can do it, Hoags, _Wally was thinking, _We're all in this with you! It's almost over._

"Hoagie is singing completely from his heart." Titania whispered backstage.

"It would seem that he is," Gordon replied. Titania's sight went quickly from the stage to the emergency exit of the concert room. Damian was dragging Abby by the arm out the door. Titania looked to Hoagie. His eyes were still closed.

_I don't love you like I loved you yesterday…_

The students clapped again. "Thank you very much everyone! Like I said, we're going to take a short break. We're going to throw it over to the DJ. We'll be back shortly!" The crowd cheered, and the group left the stage.

"Hoagie," Titania stopped him from going to the back dressing room, "That Damian guy took Abby somewhere."

"What!?"

"I saw them go through the back door and – Hoagie! Where are you going?" Hoagie was gone in an instant. He ran out the same emergency exit. It was shockingly quiet when compared to how loud the concert room had been. He crept around the corner of the building slowly, and then suddenly, he could hear the sounds of not too distant voices.

"What the heck was that about!?"

"Damian, he just wanted to dance!"

"You could've said no! I was right in front of you for crying out loud!" Hoagie got closer to the conversation. He carefully peered his eyes behind the next corner of the building and saw Abby and Damian having an argument.

"Well, you don't have to get all upset! Everyone was having a good time. I'm telling you, it was for fun! Just for –,"

"No! I don't care! You belong to me, remember!?"

"I don't belong to anybody! How dare you say that to me!" Abby took a step towards.

"Don't talk back to me!" Damian raised his arm and grabbed Abby. He was huge; Abby's arms couldn't reach his body even if she tried to make him put her down. Hoagie jumped out from behind the corner.

"Leave her alone!" Hoagie punched him in the stomach, just before he was going to strike her. Abby was able to land on both of her feet. Hoagie picked Damian's huge frame up by his collar. "It's not polite to talk to a lady like that – and only weaklings would even think about striking one!" Hoagie dropped him to the ground and kicked him. "Get lost!" Damian got up and turned the corner to get back into the building. He turned to Abby, who was leaning against the wall. Hoagie walked over to her and stood next to her. "Are you okay?" She nodded, facing the ground. "That guy – he's a real jerk. I mean you can do better than that. You deserve better than tha–,"

Hoagie couldn't move; he could barely even breath or think! Abby had pinned him to the wall by the arms, and was kissing him fully on the lips, and Hoagie was graciously returning it. _Is this real, or am I going to wake up and realize that all of this was just a dream? _Abby pushed up against him. She was shorter. Hoagie could feel her thigh rubbing against his groin. _What am I doing? _He continued to kiss her. _This isn't right, this wasn't how it was supposed to happen. _Abby pulled away and began to kiss his cheek and the side of his neck.

"Abby," Hoagie tried to push her away, "This isn't right. Stop!" She continued to kiss his neck, gently biting him and nibbling on his ear. Her thigh rubbed against his groin again. He couldn't help but make groan in approval. He suddenly snapped out of it. This had to end. "Please, stop it. This isn't right!"

"Give me one good reason," Abby whispered in his ear, "You like this, don't you? Your words tell me that you want it to stop, but everything else tells me you want this to continue." Hoagie's grip was loosening.

_Not good, this is not good! _He thought to himself. "Please, I don't want you to go and do something you'll regret. Please, just stop!" he was yelling now. "Let me go!"

"Give me one good reason," she told him once more, and started to kiss him on the lips again, but Hoagie did not return it.

Hoagie knew there was only one way. He broke off from the kiss aggressively and pushed her aside only enough so that she wouldn't fall back. He reached up to his mask and ripped it off. "Because it's me! It's me, Hoagie!" He stood there leaning against the wall, panting. He waited a while for her to respond, to say something – anything, but she only stared at him, blankly. Hoagie eventually found himself sitting on the ground with his arms around his knees. He began to cry; he felt like a child. "Why did you have to go and kiss me, Abby?" he said softly, "What did you have to go and do that for?" Still there was no reply.

Abby began to walk away; she wasn't looking at him, just like she had done a week ago. "Abby, please don't go! It wasn't supposed to go that far. Dancing with you…that was the happiest I've ever felt. That's all it was going to be, but then this – I…" Abby stopped in her place, but still didn't face him. "You weren't talking to me! You ignored me at school! I didn't know what was going on, and I wanted to know. I just wanted to make sure that my best friend since pre K was alright!" He stopped and took a deep breath. "Now that kiss is just a scar, and it's never going to heal. It's going to be a constant reminder of everything I'm never going to have." Hoagie looked down to his mask, and then turned to Abby. "If I hadn't worn this mask, if you had known it was me, would you have still let me dance with you?" Abby walked away and didn't stop anymore. She left him again, left him alone again. _It wasn't me she thought she was dancing with. She thought it was some other guy. _Suddenly, he didn't feel so happy about his dance.

-oOo-

Hoagie didn't return to the concert room until after some time. They continued, but his heart wasn't in anything he was singing. He just wanted it to be over so that he could go home, and be alone for a while. Eventually that time did come. The prom had ended. The room was almost vacant of any other students except his friends Wally, Kuki, Reira and brother Tommy, who were getting together their things with the help of Gordon, and Reira's mom and brother.

Reira was sitting in the back seat of the car with Hoagie. Tommy was sitting in the front with Gordon, and Wally and Kuki were riding home with Oberon and Titania. "Something happened, when we took a break from performing, huh?" she asked him, "You weren't singing like you were before then."

"I told Abby, that it was me behind the mask." Hoagie told her, "Plain and simple."

"What did she say?" she asked again.

"She didn't say anything." Hoagie replied. "I didn't expect her to say anything, but I don't think she wants to even be my friend anymore."

"I'm sorry for everything, Hoagie. This was a stupid idea. It was stupid." Reira said darkly, maliciously, but quietly. Hoagie faced her in surprise. He had never heard Reira angry before, and it scared him. "It was never going to work. I should have seen this coming. I should have stopped everything before we got our hopes up. Now look were we are: disappointed. Just a bunch of disappointments – one after another."

"Don't say that Reira," Hoagie told her, "You never gave up and me, and it's my turn to make sure that you don't give up either!"

-oOo-

"Mom! Tommy and I are home!" Hoagie shouted through his house.

"Come in here," She told them. Her voice was coming from the kitchen. "There's a surprise for you here." Tommy and Hoagie looked at each other, wondering just how many more surprises they could have in one day. They walked into the kitchen and looked upon what they thought was a glorious sight.

"Hey there, boys!"

"Dad!" they said together. The two of them ran to their father and have him a hug. The doorbell rang all of a sudden. Hoagie's mother went to answer it.

"Wow!" Hoagie Sr. shouted, "Look at the both of you! Look at your hair." The three of them laughed.

"Is it okay if we join you for a while?" They looked at to the door way, and there stood Reira and her family.

-oOo-

**Ch9 Notes: **This was fun. The songs were the best part about writing this chapter. A close second best part was writing that awfully _riskay_(lol) scene with Abby and Hoagie.ee

**Songs used in this chapter:**  
Mr. Brightside – The Killers

Precious – Yuna Ito (I translated it. The song is actually sung in Japanese. I skipped around to the end of it also.)

I Don't Love You – My Chemical Romance


	10. The Other Side

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door. Now that that's done, you must be excited! Have at it!

**Chapter 10: The Other Side**

Reira and her family left the Gilligan residence early I the morning. When she had arrived home, she had taken her things out of the car, took them to her room and set them away before picking up Rach and burying the both of them underneath the covers of her bed. Reira lay there, curled up in a ball petting the puppy's head for a while. She wanted everything to work out so badly, but in the end, it wasn't up to her – it was never up to her. It was up to Abby, and to the best of Reira's knowledge, she ruined Hoagie's friendship with one of his most cherished childhood friends, and that didn't make her feel good at all. "Where did everything go wrong, Rach?" Her puppy crawled over to her face and licked her cheek, "What have I done." Just as Reira was about to fall asleep, there was a knocking on the front door of the estate. It echoed throughout the house. _I wonder who that could be. I just want to get to sleep… _Reira heard one of the large mahogany doors open.

Moments later, there was a knocking on her own door. "Reira," her mother called as she opened her door, "One your friends are here to see you." Reira stayed underneath her covers pretending to be asleep. "Reira?"

"Who is it, I'm sleepy," Reira grumbled.

"It's me." Reira uncovered herself and sat upright to see who it was, and was so surprised at who she saw, she had forgot all about her fatigue. There at her doorway, stood Abigail. She looked tired, and it looked to Reira as though she had been crying the entire night. "Hey."

"Hey," Reira said. Though they had grown to be close friends, it couldn't have been more awkward for either of them to see each other, especially after the night before.

"I'll leave you guys alone to talk." Titania closed the door behind her.

"So, what brings you to my home this morning?" Reira asked, putting on a welcoming smile, but then falling back onto her bed.

"I just needed someone to talk to," Abby replied. Reira looked tilted her head up and looked at her, then gestured her to sit at her bedside.

"Well," Reira started, "I may not be that much help, but I'm a good listener."

"Was it really you guys, on the stage during prom?"

"Yup; Sure was," Reira told her cheerfully. Her fatigue was coming back to her.

"So, you guys wrote all of those songs?"

"We all wrote them together."

"All so that Hoagie could dance with me?"

"I wouldn't say that that was the only reason," Reira told her. Abby looked at her baffled. In the course of a few minutes, Reira explained to Abby everything that had happened since they had been assigned their Physics project to the night of the prom. She told her everything: giving Hoagie a ride home, and the group showing up at Reira's that morning, their practices, the Saturday of the accident and how Hoagie got a job to save up money for the necklace, getting the group fitted for their clothing, coming up with plans, and coming up with songs. She told her everything, and when she had finished, tears began to well up in Abby's eyes. "Abby, please, there is no crying in my room."

"I feel even crappier now, than when I heard him talking to me when you were in the hospital." Abby told her.

Reira recalled that in an instant. She remembered the whole thing. "Why is that?" Reira asked, even though it was obvious, she wanted to hear Abby, and her opinion.

"Why else! I had no idea how much he was feeling – how much he was holding inside just so that I would be happy – how much you guys have been working together – how much he's been working and all of it for me. All this time, I had thought he was just butting in. I kept leaving him alone; after all the things he had done for me, I kept leaving him. I kept on ignoring him, and now – I think I've lost my best friend for good." Abby put her hands to her face as though she had a headache, then, she reached into her shirt and pulled out the crescent moon necklace with the five diamonds along the arch. She looked at it a while before starting again. "I wondered for so long who gave this to me. I would read the poem every day. I would even wait around the corner of my locker to watch everyone who passed by. Hoagie would always see me there and ask what I was doing. I would tell him something like, 'Abby's just looking out for the dang stalker how gave me this!' He would always reply with something like, 'Well, you seem to like the necklace, and besides, that poem makes it seem like whoever likes you that much, isn't the kind of person who would stalk you or anything.' That jerk! He was probably laughing to himself back then." Abby sighed. "I had something great in front of me this entire time, and I blew it."

"Do you like Hoagie, Abby?" Reira questioned.

"I was always looking for that person who wrote me that poem," Abby began, "I feel in love with them the second I finished reading it all those years ago. I just never knew that it was Hoagie who I feel in love with. I feel so stupid! I feel like an idiot for what I've done."

"Everyone can have a second chance," Reira started, "All you need to do is reach out and take that chance."

"I don't know how," Abby said, "It would feel so awkward. I can't just go up to him and say I'm sorry for everything. It's not that simple."

"It could be," Reira told her. Abby looked at her, hopelessly. "Just talk to each other about it. Get yourselves on the same level and go for it!" Reira, seeing Abby still unsure about everything, moved from where she was and put her arm around her. "Hoagie really loves you. I can feel it when he sings. He loved you, even when it was painful – he still loves you, even after he told him that you didn't love him back, and he always will love you, even if he has to live without you for the rest of his life." Abby smiled. "And, if you know all of this," Reira added, "Then everything should go fine, and there will be nothing to be afraid of."

"I guess, I've always loved him somewhere on the inside. It took me until now to realize it," Abby said as she wiped the excess tears from her eyes. "I love Hoagie," Abby whispered. There was a slight laugh in her voice, almost in disbelief. She looked at Reira, who was smiling back at her, "I love him."

-oOo-

"Hey kiddo!" Hoagie's father knocked on Hoagie's open door. Hoagie was lying in bed. It was late afternoon. He was able to get some sleep, but, all though he honestly couldn't bare it anymore, he couldn't take his mind of Abby, and the incident that occurred the previous night. Hoagie could feel it on the inside. He was regretting that kiss. He wished that it didn't happen. He hated it, and all ready it was becoming a scar.

"Hey, Dad." Hoagie was happy to have his dad home, and staying home for good, but all he wanted at the moment was to be alone.

"So," Mr. Gilligan began, "What's up? How are you?"

"Honestly," Hoagie started, "I feel like crap. I'm still feeling kind of tired, I guess."

Mr. Gilligan looked at his son, slyly and suspiciously. "Oh, I see. You're having girl troubles, aren't you?"

Hoagie stared into the ceiling for a while, trying to figure out how his father was able to decipher that he was having girl problems out of, "I feel like crap. I'm still feeling kind of tired." In the end, all he could do was nod at his father in agreement.

"Oh well," Mr. Gilligan started, "I never liked it when people bugged me about things like that, so the most I can only hope that you'll be able deal with it by yourself." He sat onto the bed next to his son.

"That's fine. Just forget about it."

"Okay. Well, you wanna go watch a movie downstairs with me." Mr. Gilligan asked.

"Depends – What movie?" Hoagie asked. _A movie would be nice, _he thought. Anything would have been fine, really. As long as it took his mind off of Abby.

"Oh, it doesn't matter to me really," said Mr. Gilligan, "Action, sci-fi, romantic comedy – I don't really care."

Suddenly, Hoagie got out of his bed, and grabbed his acoustic guitar and his mobile phone. "I know what movie we should watch," he told him, "Come on."

-oOo-

**Ch10 Notes: **I'm pretty sure that this is the second shortest chapter, the shortest being chapter three. I honestly thought that this chapter was going to be much longer than expected. I was surprised when I had finished it, I was like, "Wow, I don't have anything else to say for this chapter…" Though it is short, I think I got the point across.

**Parody/Allusion Count: **As of the end of Chapter 10, there stands a total of **15** parodies/allusions. The chapter title is not an parody or allusion for anything. I was looking at it thinking, "I hope that's nothing I did on accident." I hope you guys have got it all. At the end of the last chapter, my guideline for entering answers will be shown. DO NOT SUBMIT ANSWERS IN THE FORM OF REVIEW. ANYONE CAN READ THEM. Thank you!


	11. Past Present Future

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door, and I have grown to accept this fact and have exercised this fact every time I began a new chapter. I would like to say thank you very much for sticking with this story from the very beginning and I hope that I did not disappoint anyone. Now, without further ado, I present to you the final chapter in my first fanficition. Enjoy.

**Chapter 11: Past, Present, Future**

Abigail woke up Monday morning. She looked out the window. The week long rain had finally passed, and it was finally sunny outside. She got up and got ready for school. After eating her breakfast, she left the house and was off. She had gotten to school later than usually but it was nothing dramatic. She walked through the halls going towards her locker. _I need to talk to Hoagie, _she thought, _I need to talk to him today. I'm going to tell him everything. _She grabbed the books she needed that morning out of her locker and proceeded to the spot where she and her friends usually hung out: the wooden bench and a large oak tree just off to the side of the performing arts center. _I just hope that it's not too late…_However, when she arrived, there was no one to be found. "Where are they?" she said quietly to herself. She turned around and started to her first class. "I guess I'll just be in class early." She was almost to her class, when a familiar face stopped her in her path.

"Sup, Abs?" It was Damian, "Look, babe, let's talk for a sec –,"

"Get lost!" Abby told him. She didn't have any time for things like this. She walked past him without saying another word. Nothing was going to get in her way today; she was going to make sure of that. She got to class and sat down at her seat. Some of her classmates were also in class. She could over hear them talking about the prom, and how great the band was. Though she agreed with almost everything they were saying, still, she wondered where her friends where. She sat there. The more she thought about talking to Hoagie, the more nervous she was getting. _You can't lose your cool now, Abby. You just got to stay calm is all. It's just Hoagie! He's your friend – he still is! Reira said there was nothing to worry about, but still…_

The bell rang. Soon, more students came into the classroom to take their seats. Abby looked around for Wally, who she shared first period with, but when the late bell had rung seven minutes later, he had not come through the door. _He can't be absent today… I hope that the others aren't gone too… _Abby got her books and binder out so that she would be ready for class after the morning announcements. The teacher turned on the TV that was in the room. The morning announcements aired live from the Audio Visual class. Abby didn't think much of it at first. She thought that it was just going to be another normal Monday, but after the news intro had played she saw something completely unexpected on the TV screen.

"Good morning, Gallagher High School!" it was Wally in the Audio Visual TV studio. He was wearing his mask. Instantly, the classroom was filled with a murmur of gossip. People had recognized him as the second guitarist from Saturday's prom, but suddenly, he took his mask off. More talk filled the room. "And what a beautiful Monday morning it is, right, Kuki?"

"yes, it is, Wally," Kuki replied. The camera had panned over to her. "Let's take it outside for the weather!"

The picture had switched over to a camera that was outside, being held up by one of the first period AV students. "It is a beautiful morning here outside, Wally and Kuki. It's a much greater improvement when compared to last week, with clear blue skies and a warm sun." It was Reira. She was on crutches and she too wore her mask. Again, more people recognized her from performing at the prom.

"That sounds wonderful," Kuki said. Abby put her head on the table, she was getting a little tired of watching. She just wanted to talk to Hoagie, and the sooner she could do that, the better. She needed to think about what she was going to say. She just, didn't have any time for any of this. Kuki and Wally proceeded with the school's regular announcements, but that was not the end of their surprises.

"It seems that we have one special announcement, folks." Wally said, "Let's take it back outside."

The picture went back to Reira outside. She took off her mask and said, "Thank you, Wally. We do have one special announcement." Abby still wasn't watching, but soon that would change.

_I wanna make you smile whenever you're sad_

_Carry you around when your arthritis is bad_

_All I wanna do is grow old with you._

"I love this song!" one of Abby's classmates said.

"I really liked that movie," another one remarked.

Abby could hear the singing. She looked up to the TV. The camera turned to another boy who was outside with Reira. He was wearing a blue buttoned down shirt with a white t-shirt underneath. He wore on his head a faded brown golfer's hat. Yes, it was Hoagie. His hair was still colored black and crimson, and he too wore his mask. He was playing an acoustic guitar that was strapped over his shoulder. She watched him on the screen. He was walking through the halls as he played and sang on. "That idiot," Abby laughed and weeped quietly to herself, "What does he think he's doing."

_I'll get your medicine when your tummy aches_

_Build you a fire if the furnace breaks_

_Oh it could be so nice, growing old with you_

"Is something the matter, Abby?" one of her classmates as her.

"It's nothing." She replied, happily to her classmate. They were tears of joy running down her face. Abby watched the screen. Hoagie was walking through a hallway and singing at the same time. Abby knew where he was and rushed out the door. She only had to walk a few steps before he was right in front of her.

_I'll miss you_

_Kiss you_

_Give you my coat when you are cold_

_Need you_

_Feed you_

_Even let ya hold the remote control_

Hoagie took off his mask for the second that he wasn't playing. The both of them could hear the school's reaction through the class room walls. The camera had went into a wide shot, showing the both he and Abby on the screen. The school was shocked to see that the person behind the mask was Hoagie Gilligan, but what everyone absolutely adored, others even jealous, was that Hoagie Gilligan was playing for her – singing for her, Abigail Lincoln. Abby, though she was crying more than ever, smiled at him. He was doing all of this for her, and no one else.

_So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink_

_Put you to bed if you've had too much to drink_

_I could be the man who grows old with you_

Hoagie took a few steps forward, so that he stood very close her.

_I wanna grow old with you_.

"Back to you in the studio, Wally," Reira said, just barely off camera.

When Reira signaled that it was finally safe for Hoagie and Abby to talk to each other without the whole school watching, she left them alone, and Hoagie set his guitar down onto the ground. As soon as he had done this and was bending back to stand straight, Abby ran over to him and put her arms around him in a warm embrace. She sobbed into his shoulder, "You're such an idiot." Hoagie only laughed. "What are you laughing about!? You could have embarrassed yourself in front of the entire school!"

"So?" Hoagie remarked, "This was all for you."

"I'm so sorry for everything, Hoagie. I'm sorry for ignoring you. I'm sorry for leaving you alone. I'm sorry for not noticing a perfectly good thing right in front of me. I'm sorry for not realizing it sooner. I'm sorry for everything. I was stupid. I'm so sorry." Hoagie couldn't help shedding tears himself. "Forgive me, please."

"Of course, Abby," Hoagie whispered cheerfully, "I couldn't stay upset forever. You're my best friend! You always will be, no matter what happens."

"We're best friends?" Abby questioned.

"Yeah," Hoagie began again, "Best friends, no matter what."

"So, even if I did this," Abby turned and kissed him like she had before, only this time knowing it was Hoagie, "we would still be best friends, right?" she smiled.

"Yes," Hoagie said, a bit shocked at what had just happened, "Still best friends here." The two of them laughed together. They sat on the floor of the hallway, their backs against the wall. Hoagie had his arm around her, and Abby's head rested on his shoulder.

"Hoagie," Abby started, taking the necklace out from underneath her shirt, "I want us to be like this moon, made of only the most beautiful stars in the sky and held together by a love that will last an eternity of only happiness. I love you, and I want to share that eternity with you."

"Well," Hoagie began, "I love you too, Abby. I'd really like that." He smiled at her. They kissed, and for the first time in his life, Hoagie knew for sure that this was real, that this wasn't a dream, and he was truly happy.

There was the sound of a shutter. Abby and Hoagie broke off from their kiss only to see Reira, Wally and Kuki standing over them with a camera. "Ah! This is going on my Myspace!" Kuki said.

"Kuki!" Hoagie yelled.

She and Wally ran a few feet away from them. Hoagie got up and was going to start chasing them, but was stopped by Abby for a moment. She placed her hand on his faced, "Thank you for the necklace, Hoagie." He looked at her surprised for a second. Then, she leaned in to kiss him once more. The sound of the shudder went off again.

"Oh! This one is cute too!" Kuki screamed.

"That's it," Hoagie and Abby ran after them, but before she left the hall, Abby turned around to see Reira.

She couldn't run, but that didn't matter to her. Reira gave her an approving nod and let her go on ahead. _It all worked out in the end. Just like Hoagie realized, you realized too, Abby. _She watched her friends. As they chased each other out of the hall completely, Reira knew in her heart, that they would always remain friends. They were friends in the past, she was still friends with them in the present, and, no matter what lies ahead of them, they would still be friends in the future.

-oOo-

**Ch11 Notes: **This was the most fun writing I've had in a long time. I might just make another one.

**Submitting answers:**

I believe that it would be best if you guys submit answers via a private message. That way no one would be able to see your answers except for me. - just give them to me in a list of just what I am alluding to. You don't need to list how I wrote it.

I hope you guys had fun! Review would be nice. Negative words will not be tolerated.


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